My Dear Child,

I see you.

All day long, I see you striving. Striving for notice, striving for acceptance, for healing and understanding, striving at work to earn money for your family. You work so hard day in and out. I see you work on your relationships, fighting your desires and sometimes even succumbing to them. I see you fail. I see you wrestle with the guilt of sin on your own. It consumes you and eats at your soul until your friendships and relationships become strained, even your relationship with me.

I hear you.

I hear you call out to me every morning and night. When you rise for work and when you lay down in the evening to rest, I hear you call out my name. I hear your pleading and your cries. I hear your promises to change, to wake up earlier to spend time with me, to be a better partner, be a more present parent. I hear how sincerely you mean it, too. And then I see you put the weight of daily life back on your shoulders when my shoulders are far stronger.

Do you see me?

I came to you in physical form and loved you to the point of my death. I am in the Word that you too seldom pick up to search for me within. I am the Spirit that moves in you, calling you to speak to a coworker about my love. I am present when believers gather in my name on Sunday mornings or for coffee with a brother or sister. I am standing right here beside you when you finally drop to your knees and confess all to me.

Do you hear me?

Do you hear me when I say I love you? I say it in so many ways. I say it through my sacrifice. I say it during the joyful moments of life, and the difficult ones. I say it through the small acts of ordinariness, like when you find a parking spot close to the front of the lot. I say it in the big moments, of marriage and the birth of your first child. I am present in that love. I say it in the dark times, during sickness and depression. I am always there to comfort you. I say I love you when I correct your ways and prune your heart, because I love you too much to leave you alone.

Do you love me?

I see your heart’s desires and I see that I am there, but I am not the highest priority. That seat is reserved for you. And I understand that, I do. You are consumed by what is right in front of your eyes, but I want you to open them wider so that you may see that I am also there in front of you. I haven’t left you. I am surrounding you. So, the next time you reach for the daily burdens that make up your life, stop and look to me first. It’s when you look only to yourself that you choose whether or not you love me. Do not look to your own abilities. I didn’t create you to take the world on. I already overcame the world. When you focus first on me and my abilities to carry this weight, only then can you truly see me, hear me, and love me.

Love,
Your Triune God: Father, Son, and Spirit