I remember when my girls were young, less than ten years old, they thought I was their hero, their champion, the one who could fix things and make things right. They would get excited when I came home and want to spend time with me, show me things they had learned and just spend time with me. e

Eventually they all reached the age that they came to the conclusion that I was probably the stupidest man on earth. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t understand how the world worked. So they would shut me out and roll their eyes at me.

At some point, somehow, eventually, I got smarter. They would ask my advice and input on things again. I wasn’t just the old guy who didn’t understand.

Through it all, I have loved my children. Immensely. I have always been fiercely protective of them and tried to shield them from harm. But my love also allowed them the freedom to make their own decisions, which sometimes I did not agree with. But there was never a point that I was willing to let them be harmed. And I would never have willingly let them be put in a position that they might be seriously injured or killed, even if it meant helping someone else.

I know how much I love my girls. I cannot fully comprehend how much God the Father loves us.

1 John 3:1 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

I think we spend too much of our lives like teenagers who think God just doesn’t understand the real world in which we live, that He has no concept of what we need or is best for us. Yet the love of our heavenly Father values us, His adopted children, so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son to give us life. Mind blowing love. Love that I rejoice in even though I am not able to grasp the magnitude of it.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

God’s love not only rescues and restores and redeems us, it blesses us constantly and abundantly on this side of heaven.

These days, I have regained hero status among my grandchildren. They have not yet concluded that I don’t know anything. I’m taking advantage of that and enjoying it for as long as it lasts. And one of the things I whisper in their ears when they hug me is, “Papa loves you. But Jesus loves you more.” I want Him to always be their true hero.