“But as for you, the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30

I read yesterday that God is truly, completely, absolutely, Our Father. Our existence comes forth from Him.  He gives His Own Life to us. He is really Our Father — much more than our earthly fathers could ever be.

How beautiful to call God “FATHER” — not just as a title, but as a true relationship.

This is a truth of our faith which we can never completely comprehend or exhaust.  We must return to it again and again to allow God to reveal its wonders, its heights and depths, and privilege beyond all imagining.

I recall with joy how I knew and cherished every inch of my son’s tiny body when he was an infant. I loved the sweet smell of his hair, the softness of his tiny feet, and the roundness of his baby tummy. There was never a scratch or a rash or a mark of any kind which escaped my notice. Caressed, kissed, rocked, this tiny child drew never before known streams of delight and tenderness from my heart.

Are we not consumed with love for our own children — intoxicated by our babies? So also God is intoxicated with us.  More than intoxicated – “madly in love” so say the Saints.

 We are His precious little ones.

Therese reserved for herself in Heaven the very “lap” of God.  She dreamed of the day when she would be able to climb up, and play on the knees of the Almighty One.

If we seek to become a little child like Therese, we will be humble and reverent, but also delighted that we are so loved by Our Father.  If we approach Him as a child, He will permit us intimacies which even the angels do not enjoy.

Once, when I was feeling sad and lonely, I said to God:  “Oh how I wish You could give me a hug!”  Immediately I heard in my heart, so clearly and tenderly, “I am always hugging you.” 

If the very hairs of our head are counted, as Jesus tells us, then can we doubt that we too are being kissed and caressed and rocked in the arms of God – “always.”

 (See below for related idea expressed much more eloquently by the great Saint and Doctor of the Church) 

St. Catherine of Siena prayer to the Trinity:

“How, then, did you create, O Eternal Father, this your creature? […] Fire constrained you. O ineffable love, even though in your light you saw all the iniquities, which your creature would commit against your infinite goodness, you looked as if you did not see, but rested your sight on the beauty of your creature, whom you, as mad and drunk with love, fell in love with and out of love you drew her to yourself giving her being in your image and likeness. You, eternal truth, have declared to me your truth, that is, that loved constrained you to create her.”

Memo to Stephen Hawking

Dr. Hawking:

I have seen your face all over the Internet in recent days, as your comment declaring that “there is no heaven,” has made the rounds.  You further elaborated by dismissing belief in an afterlife as “a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

As I recall, a few months ago, you also authored a book in which you confidently asserted that there is no God.

I am aware that you are a brilliant physicist and mathematician and student of the cosmos, but I am not aware of your credentials regarding theology and/or observance and study of the mystical life of prayer, or countless unexplained miracles, or perhaps most fascinating of all:  the seemingly instinctive desire rooted in human hearts to believe in a god or afterlife.   This yearning for God has been found in virtually all cultures and civilizations since history was recorded.

I was touched by the words of Helen Keller, whom as you may know could neither see, hear or speak.  When she was asked if she believed in God, she said:  I did not know His Name, but I knew HIM.  In her silent and dark world, she knew God.

What do YOU know?  You know a lot about science, and that’s laudable.  But how much do you NOT know?  We live in an age when we have progressed from planes to rockets and space stations.  Some of us were born before there were antibiotics, and now we have treatments even for diseases like cancer and AIDS.  But, we still have a long, long way to go.

And you have a long way to go too.  Brilliant though you may be, you have only begun to scratch the surface of the secrets of the universe.  If you could live a billion years, you would still be re-evaluating and re-writing your discoveries.  Remember when Pluto was a planet?

Here is a clue for you.  Although God can be found in nature, and in all His wondrous creation, you will not really know Him until you seek Him in prayer, until you invite Him into your heart and your life.  Until you fall on your knees before Him in gratitude for the little that you have been privileged to learn about His amazing universe.  Until you adore Him as Lord and King and the Almighty Creator of all that is and was and is to come.

One comment you made sarcastically was actually the only thing you really got right:

“Belief in an afterlife is for those who are afraid of the dark.”  Yes, we are afraid of the dark, for we long to live in the One Who is LIGHT.  We seek Jesus Who said, “I am the Light of the world…”

May you too grow afraid of the dark, and seek His Light while there is still time.

I have loved you with an everlasting Love Jeremiah 31:3

My Dearest Father, have I always been with You? 

Was I not conceived in Love throughout all eternity?  Did I not dwell in Your Heart from everlasting to everlasting?  Loving Father, did You not tenderly cherish the idea, the thought of me for as long as You have been, which is always?

Never in Your eternal existence have You been without the desire for me.  I have been loved eternally as You awaited the moment when You would breathe life into me, and I could grow into someone who could return Your Love. 

Did the thought of my coming thrill Your Heart?

My Father, I have always been with You.  Your divine Heart was the first womb that sheltered me.  In silence, You caressed me with loving gazes.  Then, one day, Your Love reached out in time and brought me into existence.

O Eternal Father, I have not always known You, but You have always known me.  And, my dear, dear Abba, I have always been Your beloved child.