You are the apple of my eye!

“Look mom! Look at me!” 
The cries ring out at the apple orchard for me to see their bags of apples and hearing their cries for my attention I am immediately back to the  heat of that sultry hot July afternoon and the lesson that God spoke to me from the pleas of a 2 year old on that day. 
The sun beat down hot that day and tiny beads of sweat roll down his chubby little cheeks.  He prepares himself to jump into the swimming pool like his older brother and doesn’t want me to miss it.

 

I look and I see a little boy trying hard to impress and astound me, and I am not at all a stranger to this feeling and behavior.  Don’t we all want to find our “place” in this world? Don’t we all want to “impress” or make another proud of us? I wonder for a moment if he really knows how astounded I am at just who he is and who is becoming.

He musters up enough courage and jumps in.  Water splashes up, I see his orange Hawaiian swim trunks bob up and down.  His head emerges and his eyes dart to me to see if I was watching, to see if I saw how much courage it took to get his entire head wet in that one big boy jump.  We make eye contact and he knows.  

I clap furiously and immediately swim to him to hold him and look that little boy right in the eye.  I search for the right words to say, “Look at me buddy. . . THAT was amazing!  YOU, Levi James Hunt, are amazing!”

I see him now – smile as wide as the sea, wet hair dripping down his cheeks and the pride of knowing he is loved for exactly who he is beaming from  his head to his toes and I know on an emotional level that this is what I have been searching for and maybe you too? to know that we are loved for exactly who we are.  And this love is found in our Savior, friends.  We are loved perfectly for exactly who He made us to be.  

On this fall day I am at the apple orchard with the kids and reflecting on this truth as I hear those words, “Look at me!” 

I tip my head up to the sky, feel the sunlight warming my face and I realize that I am. . . you are. . . each one of my kids and my little Levi James IS truly the apple of His eye! And it is this truth that is found in these simple little words, “Look at me!.”