I may not be an overly demonstrative guy when it comes to my "love language." Growing up we just didn't physically demonstrate our love with hugs and kisses all over the place. Add to that an introverted personality, and sex in the form of a handshake might well have been good enough if it were possible.
Okay, a bit of an exaggeration. But you get the point.
But now I'm a dad. And our little girl, Sofie, is just about the most beautiful thing I've ever known or seen.
And the one thing that has so forcefully struck me as to always bring wonderment whenever I think of it is that I have something like a physical need to hold and cuddle my daugher. I call it my "Sofie fix." If Anna brings her to meet me between work and my night classes, it's all I can do to tear myself away and go on to class.
If I am not there or am otherwise busy and don't get to help my wife bathe and dress her, to read to her while holding her in my lap, to embrace her while giving her her bottle, and the other thousand and one ways, large and small, in which touch incarnates love, then it's like there's a big, huge something missing.
To go from distance and reserve to goofy, giddy, slobbery hugs and kisses is a change. That's for sure.
But I like it.
Posted by Clifton at October 31, 2003 05:01 AM | TrackBackI am learning so very much about God from this thread. Keep these coming, huh? Maybe for 20 years or so? Thank you. Very much.
Posted by: Huw Raphael at October 31, 2003 08:43 AMWell, since I've got so much more to learn, I doubt there will be an end to these things--at least until my own demise.
After the birth of his first child (a daughter, no less), a buddy of mine said he gained great new insight into the depth of God's love for humans. I heartily concur, and Clifton's post today affirms the same.
Posted by: Michael G at October 31, 2003 01:44 PM