Terms of endearment

When I open the door to "his room" each morning, we go through a lengthy talk in which he speaks and I mimic everything he says. (sometimes we reverse, and I do the sounds first and then he echoes me. No, I'm not exaggerating, he really does.) This morning, after our "talk," I picked him up and petted him as I crossed the room. I did what many of you have done, (though you might have been embarrassed if anyone observed you) I spoke my words to him, "Hey Tooter, Hey baby, Hey darlin', yes we're glad to see you too, etc." As I walked along doing this, I thought, "Lord, why do we do this?" (talking to our dogs, cats, babies, kids, grandchildren, etc., in what some call "baby talk.") "They don't understand what we're saying." He answered me with the phrase, "terms of endearment." Instantly I knew that these "terms of endearment" are spontaneous expressions of our love. They expose our heart to the object of our love. It doesn't matter if they don't understand all we're saying; we're just pouring out love through our hugging, petting, kissing, and talking. Our baby talk is us putting our communication of love on a level we think will enable them to, "get the message." We are reaching down to them. We don't mind looking silly, in fact we love being silly with our love dearly.

In the same manner, our God and Father speaks terms of endearment to us. They are outpourings of His great and abundant love towards His "darlin's, babies, precious ones." We, each and every single one of us, are his greatly beloved. Scripture is replete with His declarations of unabashed intimacy towards us. He, the All-powerful, All-knowing, Who is so far above us, is reaching down to convey His love towards us on a level on which we can at least "get the message," even if we don't fully grasp all the words. The beauty of the star-filled night sky, the grandeur of a sunset, the colorful bloom of the flowers, the gentle cleansing and refreshing rain, the love of family and friends; are a just a few "terms of endearment" God speaks to us. The unexpected and unexplainable "little" blessings we receive "out of the blue" are terms of endearment. We don't really understand the words God is using, we just need to do as Tooter does; stretch out in His arms and thank Him with our voice. None of us, on this side of eternity, can truly understand the term of endearment God spoke to us, in allowing, even sending for that purpose, His Eternal Son to suffer and die, absorbing the awful physical and spiritual death that was rightfully and lawfully due us.

A thought on the "we don't understand all the words" idea. When we took Tooter in, he would raise a ruckus wanting to go out for the day, as he had lived from hand to handout for 2 years, roaming around the neighborhood. We let him continue to spend the day outside for awhile, but, loose dogs (which have gotten hold of a few cats in our neighborhood), fast driving kids, and the siren song of our surrounding woods began to impress us with the need for Tooter's daily jaunts to come to an end. Slowly we cut down on how often we let him out until, finally, he became an "inside only" cat. Why did we take this step? because we, knowing more of the danger outside than he, sought to spare him from harm. We spoke this as a term of endearment to him. Do you think he understood our words? Do you think he was able to receive it as a manifestation of the love we have for him? Nnnnnooooo! of course not. He made a lot of racket every day, voicing his displeasure at our depriving him of something he thought he needed. We had to really watch to keep him from escaping whenever we opened a door; the times he succeeded resulted in him refusing to come home till the wee hours of the morning. He was not a happy camper! Funny thing, though, after several months he quit trying so hard to get out, in fact I can now hold the door wide open and he will not even attempt to put one paw outside. He's learned he's safe, secure, and happy (I make sure he gets play and exercise along with his sleep) as he has transitioned from life in the "world" to life in the "promised land." He gained this contentment and happiness by obeying his "father's" instruction, even though he did not see it as a term of endearment when I began to tell him "no!"

I believe our Heavenly Father speaks terms of endearment to us that are very similar to the illustration I just gave you, words that we do not at first perceive or receive as loving gifts from above. As we consciously accept that He loves us, and voice praise to Him anyway, choosing to be obedient to Him, He begins to change our desires and attitudes about life in the world and life in the Spirit. We begin to really enjoy living the God-life. The world begins to lose it's appeal and hold on us. Just like in Tooter's case, this only comes about as we accept His Word and workings in our lives as being, terms of endearment.