Early this morning (as in just after midnight) I was trying to get my 7 month old boy to sleep and I had a revelation.

The build up to this was that my Gavin has been really sick - spent 3 days in hospital last week with Bronchiolitis. Earlier in the evening he had vomitted his entire bottle and supper all over himself and me. He had not slept at all well and has learned that if he cries, we will pick him up because we feel sorry for him because he has been so sick. So the crying is not necessarily because he feels miserable, its because he feels like being picked up. Pure manipulation at work there.

So here I am in the middle of the night rocking this baby to sleep. As he lay in may arms, all I could feel for him was complete love. I thought - this must be God.

Suddenly I realised it was. God didn't create us to make his life easier. We are like that tired, sick, manipulating baby and all he feels for us is complete love.

We can still chose to walk away from him - that's a scarey thought, but God's default is to love us and he has made the way open for us to come into his presence - to be held and loved by him - through what Jesus did on the cross.

He didn't create us to make his life easier - it actually got harder - much harder - even for God. He created us to love us and to have a relationship with us - with all the complications that come from that.

In the middle of the night - as I loved my little boy - I realised I could only do that because I am created in God's image.