"Because I love you"

I'm obsessed with children's books. I love them! I love the way that literature can communicate so many different things across cultures and ages. It simply amazes me how a short 20 page story can change a child's (or adult too!) perspective on things. After I took my weekly Friday afternoon nap, I found one of my roommate's tub of children's books (she's an education major too! We don't just collect them!). I began reading all of the ones I've never read before and came across a book written by Max Lucado called "Because I Love You". I knew Max Lucado had written several books, but I've never had the opportunity to read it and really ponder all of the connections he was trying to make with God but never said. The story line of this book is that there is an old man named Shaddai and he loves the children in the village so much that he built literally everything they could ever want for them. He spent his days loving the children and truly knowing them. One day Shaddai decided to build a wall to protect the children from the outside world, but he also built a hole into the wall so that if the children wanted to leave they could. Paladin, the most curious child in the village, found the hole and asked Shaddai about it and he said that he put the hole there because even though he wanted the children to be there he didn't want them to have to be there. Paladin being curious crawled through the hole to discover the outside world, but when he decided to come back, the hole was gone. Paladin began to cry out for Shaddai to come rescue him, but what Paladin didn't know is that before he had cried out to Shaddai he was making another hole to rescue the child that he loved.
This story was so sweet! It beautifully captured the essence of God's love for all of his children. I have heard of God as being referred to as "El-Shaddai", but I never knew what it meant. So being the Paladin that I am,  I had to do some research on it and I found this: "El-Shaddai means God Almighty. El points to the power of God Himself. Shaddai seems to be derived from another word meaning breast, which implies that Shaddai signifies one who nourishes, supplies, and satisfies. It is God as El who helps, but it is God as Shaddai who abundantly blesses with all manner of blessings. God desires to bless man and provide in abundance all of mans needs. This name is indicative of a God who is powerful enough to do just that. Only an all powerful God can bless all mankind with all manner of blessings". I just LOVE that! We have a God who loves us so much that he desires to bless us! Even when everything seems to be going wrong and we're drowning in our sin and can't find our way back, we have a God who loves us so much that before we cry out for him he is already on his way to save us! He is powerful enough to bless us with forgiveness and grace through his son, Jesus Christ!


See? You can learn SO MUCH through children's literature :)