Since Christopher was born and was tenuously hanging on to life during his five months in the newborn intensive care unit, I felt an overwhelming desire to communicate to him how much I love him. Throughout the nearly 12 years of his miraculous life, I have had an increasingly strong wish for him to reciprocate and say, "Daddy, I love you." I love hearing my other two children, Ben and Abbie, express their love for me. With Christopher, I had accepted his smiling, laughing, and giggling when we played or otherwise interacted as expressions of his love. Recently, Christopher surprised me again. A couple weeks ago, I was taking him "potty" before putting him to bed. I sat him down on the potty, and started waiting. While Christopher sat and looked at me, he started to sing the children's primary song, "Love One Another" which is about Jesus's love for his children and expectation that his children will also love one another. Christopher sang in his typical fashion by singing "uh", "uh", "uh" to the tune of the song. He sang through the song twice as I thought of the words I know so well: "As I have loved you, love one another. This new commandment, love one another. By this shall men know, ye are my disciples, if ye have love, one to another." It is not often I have spiritual moments in the bathroom. However, on this evening, my bosom burned as I felt the tender mercies of Jesus Christ as he allowed Christopher to communicate with me in a new way--that he loved me.
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