I was sitting with my 9-year old son the other day and I asked Him, “Do you understand that God loves you?”
He said, “Yes.”
“Do you always feel that love?”
Shyly, he answered, “Well, it’s kind of hard sometimes.”
“Yeah, it can be. He’s not here to hug or play ball with.”
He replied, “Yeah, like with you and Daddy, I can see you. We can do fun stuff together. Daddy plays ball. You teach me school.”
So then, I asked him, “Well, your dad is gone right now for work. You can’t see him. Do you know that he loves you when he’s gone?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
He sat there and thought for a minute, “Well, ‘cause when he’s home, he does lots of stuff to show me he loves me and I know when he’s gone, that wouldn’t stop.”
“That’s exactly right. It’s the same with God. If you ever forget that He loves you, or it seems hard to feel it, just look at a crucifix and know that He did that to show you His love. And that love doesn’t go away even when we can’t see Him. Just like your dad when he’s gone for work.”
Our crucifixes, Catholic Pilgrims, are our visual reminder of God’s love for us, should we ever forget or struggle to feel it.
Have a blessed Thursday.
*St. Mary of the Annunciation, Charleston, SC. Established 1789. Current church, 1839.
