Most Fridays, I join a community of bloggers for Five Minute Friday. One word prompt, five minutes. Unedited. The prompt this week is: Affection.

Upon seeing the word prompt, a memory came rushing back. Even before writing a single word, I returned to read an old post from years ago. The memory has remained etched in my mind.

Life seemed different when experienced through my granddaughter, Sophia, who was then four years old. Running errands took on a whole new meaning, as she fully embraced the journey. She especially loved going into the post office as she would sit up on the counter, talk to the clerks, and wait patiently for them to imprint her hand with a rubber stamp and ink. She loved every minute of it.

But there was one clerk, a woman, she took a shine to and often waited until we could step up to her counter.

Only after Sophia began school, and I was alone at the counter, did the woman admit that she was always surprised at how we waited for her.

She admitted she did not like people, and especially children. I remarked I had never picked up on that as she always responded and engaged with my granddaughter.

Her response has stayed with me for years: “You people made me like you.”

That day the post office was empty and she freely shared of a painful childhood. She always felt unloved, invisible, and rejected.

Having already gone back to read when I first shared this experience, it seems timely to share these words from Lisa Harper:

“Our Savior pursues us to the extreme. He takes the lead in loving us. He calls us into relationship with Him.

 

The disciples and the crowds drew close mainly because they sensed He cared about them. Jesus won their hearts by declaring and demonstrating His affection first. And the more I contemplate His passionate quest for my own heart, the more I’m compelled to run after Him.”

 

(from Untamed by Lisa Harper, page 83)

“We love, because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19, NASB)
Let’s “win their hearts by declaring and demonstrating His affection first.”

Image by AI ARTIST KING from Pixabay
Today I may be joining: Five Minute Friday .