A compassionate God

I took this picture many years ago in a school playground. When I was asked to show my photographs and talk about them at a camera club, I found that easy to do. But whenever I tried to say something about this picture and what it meant to me, I felt tears well up and I couldn't say anything. It puzzled me. (This was before I decided to follow God. God's love was foreign to me.)

Around this time I decided to search for God. I could no longer handle the suffering on my own. I wondered to myself, "Is this God people speak about - the God I rejected in my teens - truly able to do what people say he does?" I longed for peace. I longed for rest.

Gradually I did find God and - at the age of 42 - I began to go to church and learn about Jesus. Though I had gone to Sunday School during all my childhood and teen years, nothing had sunk in. I had to learn everything the Bible said all over again - this time with an open heart.

Now when I look at this picture, I know what it was that touched me so deeply. Now I recognize what I saw in it. In the girl's face I saw the love of Christ, expressed so beautifully. And the child in the wheelchair was me, broken and suffering.

I discovered how great God's love is, and I continue today to learn more and more about that love. The picture is no longer a puzzle.

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! (1 John 3:1)