My daughter Cadence is so amazing that I can’t put it into words.  Whenever I am having a bad day, I find out where Cadence is and I go see her.  Because the worst day in the world can have a drastic change the moment I see Cadence.  It never fails every time I see Cadence the first thing she says is,

“I love you Daddy, you are the best daddy in the whole world.”

With that one line my daughter can take me out of the worst depression, and get over the worst circumstances.  It is amazing what change it can bring to my day.  I always reply back to her,

“Baby Girl, your daddy loves you more than you know.”

Sometimes I don’t think my daughter knows how much I love her or what it means to me when she tells me she loves me.   I don’t think I ever realized how deep a fathers love can be untill I actually became a father.

I believe this concept to be true with my heavenly Father.  I don’t think I can comprehend how much he actually loves me.  I also believe I get so busy with life that I can miss times where God is actually trying to show me his love.  Just the other week he made this so apparent to me. I became so aware to the point where it brought me to tears.

I was at National Youth Leaders Conference hosted by the amazing Jeanne Mayo.  There are so many amazing things I could tell you about the conference, it was by far the greatest Youth Leaders conference I have ever attended.  While I was there I was getting so much.  Notes, Gifts from Jeanne and the conference.  I had so much stuff that all of my hands where full.  One morning I was dropping things everywhere I went and I had no way to hold my coffee so I clinched it between my arm and stomach like any die-hard coffee drinker with a Starbucks would do so I could try to get it to a table where I could get a better grip.

This genius idea almost worked, but I ended up crushing the coffee cup against my belly and getting Starbucks on my shirt.  As I stood fumbling all over with all of these things.  I stopped and saw all the other guys who were smart enough to bring a back pack or man purse with them to the conference happily drinking their full cup of uncrushed Starbucks.  I said to myself.

“I wish I had brought a back pack this really stinks.”

Fast forward to that night I was sitting in the worship service and Kari Jobe was singing her song like no one else can, “How He Loves Us” As she sang the chorus I sat and prayed and said, “God how much do you love me? Let me see the depth of your love.”   I have to admit I am a person that struggles with needing approval it’s not a good thing but its something I deal with.  I need to feel loved or I feel a desperation come on.  I have done a lot of things to not deserve the love of God and I tend to remind myself and him of them.  How can a perfect God love me in my imperfections.

But as Kari says, “Oh, How He LOVES Us”

You see before God ever created me he knew I was going to mess up.  He knew I would be broken.  God knows all things and knew in the Garden that man would bring sin into his life.  But God already had a plan, his perfect plan to send his son to die for me and all of my sins and brokeness “Oh, How He LOVES Us!”

I sat there and prayed and said, “God, Sometimes I wonder how you could love me.”  and Him give me this simple reply,  “I got you a back pack didn’t I?”

Wow, I was blown way and broke into tears.  You see before service that night I went and put all my stuff at my seat and then began walking around to try to find some friends.  I ran into Chandler Boyce a great new friend and director of one of the greatest youth camps in the country “Youth America”  While talking to him he handed me a Youth America backpack as a gift.

At the time I had totally forgotten about that morning when I felt like such a dork and wished that I had a back pack to put my stuff in.  But my God who loves me so much didn’t forget.  He wanted his son (me) to be blessed.  I missed it until God reminded me of it in the service.  Which in a way I am glad I missed it. Chandler may have thought I was a little weird breaking down in tears when he handed me a back pack that he was giving away to Youth Pastors.

I want you to know that God loves you.  Stop and reflect on your life, I am sure there are many areas that you have missed.  Many “back packs” that you didn’t put it together it God was blessing you because he loves you. If you stop and reflect you may just be brought to tears on the little things we miss that may just be God-loving us.  As I look back on my life I can see doors he has closed, that at the time I was so upset I didn’t get opened and looking back I would have missed his amazing plan for me if I had taken that door.  There are many little things like “Back Packs” that God has given us all and many of us have missed the amazing moment that it was.  Reflect on your life and the moments he has shown is love, the chapters he has brought you through.  It will blow your mind the love he has for you. He is a Father who loves to take care of you and show you his love and  it makes his day when we stop and realize all he has done and we say, “Dad, I love you. You are the best dad in the world.”