Does God Love You?

I love asking people if they feel that God loves them. Most respond,"Yes!"; I then ask the more challenging question: "How do you know?"; That's when it becomes interesting.

I invite you to join me in raising a toast to God, Who made it very clear to me, once again, that He must really love me: I met my son for coffee late last night, and in the course of our conversation he told me that he decided to randomly ask people whether they have ever experienced God in their lives. I felt that God was hugging me. One of the most important goals in my life is for my children to experience God's Presence in their lives, and my son was speaking to me about feeling God in his life. L'Chaim, God! Thank You.

And, there's more: My son described his experience of God in his life: He works with severely mentally and physically handicapped children. (He can't begin to imagine the intensity of my admiration for him.) He spoke of the beauty of the souls of the severely autistic children for whom he cares. There is one young man who is terribly deformed and cannot move. My son spends an hour each day cleaning his young charge and then carefully stretching the boy's muscles. He is exhausted, soaked with perspiration and aching from spending an hour bent over a hospital bed working with the boy. When the stretching is finished, the boy, who cannot communicate with others, moves his mouth in a tiny smile and sighs with pleasure. "When I see that smile and hear that sigh, I can see the beauty of his soul. I feel that God has given me a gift to be able to bring such joy to someone else. At that moment, I feel God's involvement in my life".

My reaction to hearing anyone, but especially a child, describe such an experience, is to lift my glass to God and say, "L'Chaim. Thanks." I invite you to join me.