Thanks be to God for helping us understand spiritual truths by relating them to illustrations of tangible, physical things. For example, God wants us to know of the deep love that he has for us. There are several ways that he has chosen to relate his great love to man. One way is to use relationships that people have with each other. He describes his love to us through the relationship between friends, family, husband/wife and parent/child. In the above verse, God uses the example of parental love to convey some of the emotional feelings that he has for his children.

Many of us can relate to the loving relationship that a parent has for his child by being a parent. There is nothing quite like the emotional bond that a loving parent has for his child. A parent wants the best for his child. The parent lovingly nurtures the child. The word nurture comes from a Latin word that means to suckle. Immediately, we think of the sucking child at a mother's breast. As a father, I have watched my wife feed our children this way. The infant child gave no love in return. Yet, how deeply the mother's feelings ran for the child as she would cradle the baby in her arms and let that baby draw out the life sustaining milk from her own breast. I would watch my wife as she would look into our child's eyes and whisper softly sweet words of love. I remember how we would try to keep our babies warm and clean, something that they could not do for themselves. How we would peer into the little bed at night and watch for her little chest to move up and down with each breath. And when the cry rang out in the late night hours, mother was there to feed her beloved baby.

It is true that not all babies are treated with such love and compassion. In fact, the unthinkable does occur. Some children are abandoned, some are abused and some are slain. God knows that the parent/child relationship is not always a perfect example of his love for us. It is not imperfect because of God. It is imperfect because of sinful man. Even the most loving earthly parents fail to portray completely the great love that God has for his children. Yet, God uses these relationships to teach us something about him that we might otherwise not understand. God does understand that although most parents do not forget their own children, some do. And he mentions this in Isaiah 49:15. God says, ' yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.' And how can we take comfort in that God will not forget his children? In Isaiah 49:16 he explains: 'Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.' Our beloved Lord and Saviour need only to look at the palms of His precious hands to remember us. He can never forget the day when in the greatest act of love that the world has ever known he gave his life blood for us. As the baby sucks the milk from the breast of the loving mother, we drew the life giving blood from the Saviour. We gave no love in return for His blood, yet he gave it that we may live. 'But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' - Romans 5:8

- Brad Hill