Hug Attack

When I was a little kid of 4 or 5 (why my posts of late all seem to deal with my childhood I don’t know, but thanks for putting up with it) my mom, big brother (I do have a younger brother but he didn’t come along until a few years later) and I would play a game. The hugging game. Mom would wrap our arms around our bodies real tight – like we were giving ourselves a hug. While she did this she would give us a big ‘ol bear hug to make sure the hug stayed “on.” Then my brother and I would run out of the kitchen giggling and run chasing each other all through the house. Seeing who could keep their hug the longest.

At some point during the chase the hugs inevitably fell off. What 4 year old can run and keep their arms wrapped around themselves for more than 1.2 minutes, if that long? (The other sibling would be smug in the knowledge that although they too lost his/her hug, they held it longer - Ha!)

We would walk back into the kitchen and say “Mom, my hug fell off!” She was such a great sport – “Oh no! Your hug fell off? We can’t have that. Let me put another back on!” And she would stop what she was doing, squat down, wrap our tiny arms around our bodies and seal it with a giant bear hug and send us back out of the kitchen on our grand chase.

This game was ceaseless. No matter how many times we came back mom always acted genuinely surprised when we returned having lost our hugs – tiny arms dangling at our sides. The point of the game was to see who could keep the hug the longest - but secretly the best part was getting the bear hug from mom. I felt so safe and loved. The memory of it is still so clear and the warm and loving feeling still so present. It was just a silly game, right? Who even knows how it ever started?

I'll tell you how it started. God is love. That's how it started. God loves us and wants us to know what that is and what that feels like. So he gives us family and friends and partners and spouses and co-workers and children and pets to show us what love is and to give us hugs when we need them.

And He is always there waiting to wrap us in a big ‘ol bear hug when we need Him. He is just like my mom, and vice versa, so patient every time I come to Him after a bad day or sometime I just need a bit of encouragement – “Oh No. Your hug fell off. Here let me give you another one!” And also like mom in the kitchen, He’s always there giving me His full attention.

It’s nice to know we always have a place to go when our hugs fall off. God gives us loving families and friends to hug and to hold, but He also gives us Himself. And no one gives a better bear hug than Him.