Our four year old - the Loving Linebacker - is growing bigger & acting stouter all the time. Rough & tumble one moment. Gentle & loving the next.

Attempting to ready him for sleep last night I said, "Let's lay on your bed & read a book." Knowing that he loves to be self-determined I added, "You choose one."

And, since he wants to be a paleontologist, I should not have been surprised by his choice: Ferocious Dinosaurs! It even has sound. Roaaaar! I read softly & slowly attempting to mellow the beast beside me. Yet he was so excited, he couldn't lay down, but sat & bounced beside me. Peppering me with questions. Animated at the prospect of enormous creatures eating gargantuan plants. And one another. Rough & tumble.

Book complete, however, he laid his head on my chest. Gentle & loving.

I whispered slowly, awe voiced, "Lay still. What do you hear?"

He whispered back, still as he could be, "I hear thumping."

"That's Daddy's heartbeat. God makes it beat. It makes me alive."

I received a still, soft, "Uh-huh." He lay motionless. Listening.

Still whispering I asked, "Do you know what it says?" Speaking to the rhythm of my heart, "Thump-thump, thump-thump, says, I love, John Mark. I love, Mama. I love, Mary. I love, Sethy. I love, John Mark."

And then I prayed. With my son's ear planted still. On my chest. I prayed. Of thanksgiving, of praise, of protection, of wisdom. And love.

O, how a father loves.

O, how much more our Heavenly Father loves.

God, so loved... you.

But God demonstrates his own love... to you.

You are the heartbeat of our Heavenly Father.

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