I Love You, Daddy

By Marcus Smith –

“I love you, Daddy.”

Four whispered words followed by two slender arms and one too-tight squeeze. As a father of three daughters, I have heard many an “I love you,” and can never hear those words enough. Whether at night time tuck-in or after receiving a yes, children are quick to let their parents know that they love them. But when my daughter slipped up to me without warning and circled me in her young arms, it was the first time she had expressed love for me, with an adult’s mind, for no special reason.

Like all my girls, she is the definition of precociousness. She can quote me as if Bartlett had devoted a chapter to me in one of his famous Quotations books, and God help me if I am inconsistent in word or action.

A keen observer, she is a skillful pundit whose humor illuminates the issues and foibles she sees around her. And I am poignantly aware that she has seen all that would be required for anyone to judge me—imperfect.

Yet she chose. She chose to love me.

God blessed me with a family of girls and their love moves me to a humble thankfulness that I can experience the kind of absolute love that they give me. Their chosen love makes my joy complete. My girls are among the most precious of my life’s reward.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3).

When I think about God and His love, I think first of the cross.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

However, God does more than loving His creation. God is love. From the first moment of creation, until the final curtain of this age, God is the ultimate creator and thus source of all love.

“Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Growing up, I learned that because God is self-sufficient He does not need anything, including our love. As a child it seemed strange to me that we loved a God who did not need to love us back. So I questioned whether God could actually love me personally like my parents could. After all, if God did not need me, how could He love me?

In Acts, Paul debated with philosophers who believed that God needed the world. Paul argued that God created the world and is, “not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25). For Paul, since God is the source of all creation, He cannot have unmet needs. So why did God create humans He did not need and who would cause Him grief with their sin?

The Bible teaches us that God did not create the world because He had to. Rather, out of His infinite love, He chose to create and love His creation. As I take joy from my children’s love for me, God experiences our love when we chose to love him through praise and worship, and He feels joy (Ps. 44:3 Prov. 15:8).

God desires worship, not because He needs our love, but because, like a parent, He wants our love.

I could have not had children, but then I would miss both the joy of experiencing their love, and the joy of loving them. As my daughter chose to love me, so we must chose to love the God who created us.

True love is chosen love.