Sweet Charli, your Great Aunt Jennifer was thrilled to meet you this week. You are already spoiled and probably exhausted from being continually passed from cousin to grandparent to aunt. You are blessed with a large, crazy family that argues loudly, but is fiercely loyal and loves big.
But what I hope for you above all is that you know there is one who loves you infinitely more, one who loves you perfectly, unconditionally. You see, long before your parents met, well before your Grandma decided she had to make her appearance during my third birthday party (a story for another time), way back even before your great, great grandparents fell in love, God had you in His heart. Psalm 139:6 tell us this. “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in Your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Precious Charli, as you grow and become all that God created you to be, I will faithfully pray for you. I won’t pray that your life is free from challenges. I won’t pray that you get everything you desire. I won’t pray that you never know disappointment. Instead, I will pray for the most important thing: that you will know and love the One who knows you better than you know yourself, the One who loved you before time existed, the One who loved you enough to die for you, and the One who loves you too much to let sin and death have any power over you. May you fully know the truth of Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved.” And may you marvel at the promise of 1 John 3:1 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
Yes, beautiful Charli, you are blessed to be loved greatly by and belong to such a special crew. But even more than you belong to our family you belong to the very One who defines love. As your Great Uncle Mike would have told you if he were here to hold you, “Always remember who you are and whose you are.”