I got a new toy a few weeks ago. It is a standalone DVD recorder from Sony. It was a refurbished unit on clearance from one of my favorite tech sites, so we decided to grab it in hopes of dubbing off a bunch of our old home movies. So today, I pulled it out of the box and after struggling with some cabling problems (I keep tons of old cables but can’t find the one for our camcorder. I dug an older camcorder out of the box and managed to get something going to try this thing out.
As I write this post, I am watching the video of my first son digging into his first birthday cake after earlier seeing the video of my other two children doing the same thing. I have sort of seen these in reverse order, but it is precious to walk back down the memory lane of these events.
As an obsessive dad, I filmed non-stop action of each of my kids tearing their cakes apart and stuffing them in their mouths. In the background you hear the voices of those at the party, but you never see most of them. The focus is on the kid at the center of the spotlight and it stays there. The reason I did this is because I didn’t want to risk missing a moment of the excitement for anything. Of course the whole thing isn’t exciting for most who watch it, but I have the eyes of a father.
I admit that as an earthly father, I have my moments of distraction. It isn’t like I always stare at my kids nonstop, but there are times when I zero in a give them complete focus. It lets them know that I love them. Scripture talks about this aspect of God’s love for us. Jesus says that if we as earthly fathers know how to give good things, how much more does our Heavenly Father give good things for us. The Bible also talks about Him “singing over us.” One of my favorite “modern hymns” is called How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, because it is so powerful in its expression of this love. In the first verse it says this:
How deep the Father’s love for us,
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
You may feel wretched or unloved, but let me assure you that nothing is further from the truth. The Father is not without compassion. John 3:16 isn’t just some sappy sentiment. He loves you and gave His only Son for you. See yourself through His eyes.