Free to love

 So many mornings, I put our daughter in bed with me and watch some TV while we both wake up.

OK, while I wake up and while she plays a bit with some toys I give her.

Usually, she sits/lays next to me against the pillows, but the other day she wasn't happy just being next to me. She wiggled her way over until she was leaning against my stomach with my arm on her and then she stopped fussing and began playing.

She just wanted to be touching me, snuggling with me, instead of just next to me.

It was the first time she ever wanted to actually snuggle with me, and it made me smile. It made my heart melt because it was her choice to be near me instead of me placing her by my side.

Someone asked my husband this week why bad things happen in this world if there is a God. He responded because of free will. But why would God give us free will if it leads to bad things? There are a lot of ways to answer that, but I think one of them is illustrated by what my daughter did.

God created his children, and he wants his children to love him. However, he doesn't want to force it; he wants them to choose it.

As sweet as it was having our girl snuggled against me as a baby, it wasn't her choice. I just picked her up and held her. It was a whole other thing to have her wiggle her way over to me and snuggle me by her choice. She chose to love on me in that moment, and that made it so much sweeter than when I just love on her.

God could force us to be perfect and to not give us any choice but to love him. However, he wanted the joy of us realizing that we need him and choosing to love him with all we have. It's so much sweeter when your kids want to be by your side, and God knew that.