"Everyone's asleep!" and the perfect father

Okay, so before I do my *real* post I have to share with you guys something my little sister Gabrielle (age 4) said this evening....


She had just taken off her princess dress-up outfit and then claimed that she didn't want to put her real clothes back on.  We were in the schoolroom in front of the big picture window.

 Me:  Gabrielle, you better put your clothes on, or all the neighbors are going to see you without NOTHIN' on!  *in mock horror*


Gabrielle:  No they won't!  They're all asleep!  (points to the houses)


Me:  No....they're not...(it's about 5:30)


Gabrielle:  Yeah!  See, the houses are PITCH BLACK!


Me:  But that doesn't mean they're asleep.


Gabrielle:  Oh yeah...maybe they're playing hide-and-seek in the dark.  After dinner.  *some thought*  If they already had dinner.


I thought that was hilarious.


ANYWAY.....


My real post is a little something I was thinking on the other day...I'm sure most of you have heard of the American boy, Sean, who was kidnapped by his mother and taken to Brazil.  His father battled the Brazilian legal system for five years to get his son back, and finally did on Christmas Eve 2009.  If you haven't heard the story, take a couple minutes to look at the website, Bring Sean Home.  We watched a documentary about the whole thing the other day.  Besides feeling all warm and fuzzy at the end, I was touched by several things in the story.


The father, David Goldman, had a sad story.  His wife took his son to Brazil on what he thought was a vacation with his wife's Brazilian family, but after his wife got there she called him several times and hysterically demanded a divorce and full custody of their son, Sean.  Of course, he refused, and said in the interview that he had no idea why his wife wanted a divorce.  That alone is tragic enough.


An international treaty demands that abducted children be returned to their country of birth/citizenship within six weeks, but Brazil paid no heed to the treaty, and only after five long years of battling, agony, pain, and worrying for his son did David get Sean back.  During that time, David's wife had remarried and died after birthing a daughter, but her family refused to give Sean up, and even, the documentary said, told the boy derogatory things about his father to try and turn Sean against his own dad.


All the while, David was dedicated to one thing: getting Sean back, no matter the cost, no matter the time, no matter the drain on his physical well-being.  If you had seen his face when he talked about his mission you would know what I am talking about.  It was a mission that he was determined to complete.  David was tormented by the thoughts of the emotional trauma Sean must be going through and the lies his Brazilian family might be telling Sean about him.  All he wanted was his little boy home safe, even if it took years.  He was a dedicated father who loved his little boy with all that he had in him.


 Now...that led me to realize - this is a human father we're talking about here!  I was somewhat taken aback with the thought that God, our heavenly Father, loves us even more than David Goldman loves Sean.  He is the Perfect Father - all he wants is to have his lost children home safe...no matter the cost, no matter the time.  And he will do ANYTHING, whatever it takes, to get us back.  Even when people try to smear him and convince his children he doesn't care about them and he's a harsh and judgmental ruler...nothing they can say will deter him from his one goal.


Can you imagine how Sean's father would feel if he was forbidden from ever seeing Sean again?  Telling his son he loved him?  Can you imagine how the Perfect Father feels when a child of his rejects him or never comes home, never finds out how much he is loved?  EVERY TIME a person dies without never knowing his Father, it hurts him the same way.  Because he cares for every one of us, more than we will ever know.


He longs to hold us in his arms and tell us he loves us.  And whether we know it or not, there's an aching place inside us that wants to run to him.