An All The Time Love

I took it easy and gentle today.

Started with some dinosaur time with two two year olds, one of which was Abby, of course, and the other was the wonderful full of life little guy Kristyn cares for during the day.

After the dinosaurs, it was snack time and we were having pears. I counted in Thai as I cut the pieces into the cups, and two little voices counted with me. And then, random snack time conversation. Our small friend said that his Gramma makes him cookies. To which I responded that his Gramma must love him a lot, and he agreed vigorously. Abby, looked at me, and then said thoughtfully to her friend, "My Gramma loves me all the time." It was a simple statement, without any tones of comparison or anything. Just something she believed to be true.

What was really great about this was that Abby was not repeating anything she'd heard anyone say, at least not to my knowledge. She's at the great age where she often says things that someone's already said to her, without always knowing what it means. But this wasn't that. This was her trying to find words to describe what she's experienced between us. "All the time" was a qualifier, and descriptor. This was how her Gramma loved her. Completely. Unconditionally. With reckless abandon. All the time.

And I do. Like crazy. That's what Grammas do.

So I move through my easy and gentle day letting that linger on my heart. It's soothing after such a stressful start to the week. It fills me where I've been drained. It's sweet and gentle and easy on my soul.

And driving home at the end of my day, I'm playing one of my CD's I haven't had on in a while. There's this fantastic winter sunset hanging across the cold sky, and it's making me cry it's so amazing. The song is "Everything's All Right", which is a song about everything not being all right but God being in the middle and being omniscient and sovereign and everything that He is that actually does make everything all right.

And in the middle of the song, somewhere between the lyrics and the melody I hear Him say it. "Ruth Anne, I love you all the time."

And He does. Like crazy, it would seem. Because that's what Father's do.