I remember when our girls were little I would tuck them into bed. We would go through the routine of saying "How much do you love me?"  Then they would stretch their arms apart and say this much mommy.  Then they would say "mommy how much do you love me?" Then I would stretch my arms as far as they would go and say this much, plus a bushel and a peck and a hug around  the neck. Then we would laugh, say our prayers and go to bed. 

I think about that and I suddenly wonder if our Heavenly Father longs to hear those words, too.  The first thing Jesus did for us is  He Stretched His arms out on a cross and said, "I love you this much." After His resurrection, He ask Peter by the Sea of Galilee, "Do you love me?" Jesus wanted to know.

Now I seemed to hear that same question echo around me. Do you love me? And those words float up inside me. "Yes, Father, I love You!" And at the very moment  my love for Jesus grows more alive, merely by expressing it. Of course, I know that it was not Jesus who needed to hear it as much as I needed to say it. That is why He asked Peter long ago, and why He asks you and me today. "How much do you love me?"

    (Matthew 22:37) says," Love the Lord your God with all your heart....."