The Love of a Father

This morning I was singing “Centuries” by Aaron Strumpel and was overcome with emotion as I sang the chorus: “I’ll sing for joy in Your place of rest, I’ll sleep in peace, resting on Your chest….” Having a son has produced emotions more sweet and tender than I imagined. I can’t help sometimes but sit and stare at Ben. And it’s difficult to describe the joy I get from holding him against my chest as he sleeps. Last night he was fussing and having difficulty sleeping and then when I pulled him to my chest he began to drift off and “sleep in peace” as I held him. What hit me this morning, much as it did when Mattie was born – although this “familiar” feeling hasn’t lost any of its power – is that this week I have tapped in, if only a little, to the feeling that God has toward me and His great heart to want me to rest in His presence and experience His comfort.

Another line that really struck me was the phrase, “Your place of rest.” Yesterday I was reading John 14 and the following verses jumped out: Joh 14:4-6 “And you know the way to where I (Jesus) am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me…”

What hit me was that Jesus reveals the “location” where He was going to Thomas in His answer to Thomas’s question. Where is it? (verse 6) TO THE FATHER. The place where Jesus takes us is “to the Father.” And we know that “in (His) presence is fullness of joy and (His) right hand there are pleasures forever.” (Ps. 16) So, where is God’s “place of rest?” With our Father. Sleeping peacefully “on His chest.”