"I'll Love You Forever"
We read I'll Love You Forever to our sons when they were growing up. We made up our own tune to the song, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be."
It's hard to remember those days in the rocking chair, reading it over and over to them, without getting tearful.
It turns out that many people can relate. The book's author, Robert Munsch, reports that it has sold 15,000,000 copies. His publisher didn't want to publish it because it didn't seem like a traditional children's book.
If just reading the title gets you choked up with personal memories, you may not want to read the true story behind the book. Munsch says that the song came first:
I made that up after my wife and I had two babies born dead. The song
was my song to my dead babies. For a long time I had it in my head and
I couldn’t even sing it because every time I tried to sing it I cried. It was
very strange having a song in my head that I couldn’t sing (ibid.).
He later built a story around the song, and the rest is history for millions of parents and their children. I imagine Gary, Dale, and Carl would tell you this is their favorite book from childhood. It's certainly ours.
Isn't it interesting that such a beautiful, intense love story surrounds something so heartbreaking and tragic? Out of the author's pain and sorrow, this incredible, enduring legacy was created. Knowing the backstory only intensifies the power of the words in the book.
Have you ever looked at the story of the cross in that light? From the first page to the last, Scripture teaches us that God loves us, His children. He cares for us, protects us, and wants us to live with Him forever.
But there is a backstory. In fact, it goes back to eternity. There, the Godhead made a plan to make sure we could live with Him forever. But it would require His Son dying for us in order to make it happen. Discovering that should melt our hearts. What love! It's a forever love, one that can make us the best we could ever be.
Here is God's message throughout Scripture: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness" (Jeremiah 31:3). In other words, "I'll love you forever."
From "Daddy" to "Dad"
Do you remember when you stopped calling your dad, "Daddy"? I do.
I was about 6 or 7 years old and I remember being outside with my dad. He began a conversation with our next door neighbor, which I interrupted by calling out "Daddy!" Up until then, I had always called my dad, "Daddy."
But when I called out, "Daddy!" he gave me a funny look and he and the neighbor just chuckled, like that was baby talk. I never called him "Daddy" again.
The Aramaic/Hebrew word "Abba" is the equivalent of our English "Daddy." But unlike our relationship with our earthly father, our heavenly Father will never chuckle at us for calling Him Daddy. That's because we will never outgrow our child-like dependence on Him.
Quite the opposite. The more we grow in our faith the more we will realize our total dependence on our heavenly Father. That's why God loves it when we call Him "Abba." That's who He is and who He will always be to us.
"Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, "Abba, Father" (Galatians 4:6).
Parental Dependence
CHILDREN'S LESSON:
In my back yard are some very small trees. When they were first planted they needed lots of care. They had to be watered and fertilized. They were not strong enough to even stand on their own. Sometimes the wind blows very hard so they need a stake in the ground to support them.
Boys and girls, that's why God has given you a Mom and Dad that want you to grow up in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just like your parents held your hand when you were learning to walk, you still need their support to grow spiritually. Your parents help you know right from wrong. Your parents may even make you do chores, homework and perhaps even Scripture memory. All of these things are like that stake in the ground; they help you grow up to be a strong follower of Jesus.
"Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it" (Proverbs 22:6).