We spent the weekend with our granddaughter.  She is just two and a half weeks old and weighs just over seven pounds.  We have only seen her twice, but we are head over heels in love.

Everyone said it would happen.  They warned us that we were in for a ‘new kind of love’.  And I am sure that we have had just a taste, but that taste has made us want more and more.

We lost hours holding her and staring at her while she was sleeping — watching her face change from peaceful, to smiling, to irritated, to sleepy.  We talked to her and walked with her and fed her and changed her.  We were amazed, truly amazed, by this little life that we knew nothing about just a short time ago.  We examined her fingers and her toes.  We touched her hair and smelled her skin.  We took her in.

And now, sitting in my house by the river, I am looking at the photo of her tiny little hand inside the larger older hand of her grandfather.  How many times will he hold that hand?  When she’s crying, or scared, or excited, or angry.  How many times will he wish that he could hold that hand?  When she’s far away or busy or holding someone else’s hand.

Right now she is so tender and pure — a brand new blank book with all kinds of stories waiting to be written.  So many of us are watching in wonder and amazement.  All she has to do is breathe and we are awestruck. One little accidental smile and we beam.  Nothing that gets written in this book will change the ridiculous love we have for this little girl.  We are just overcome with happiness to be witnesses to this brand new life and whatever it holds.

We pray we get to hold her hand from time to time, but when we can’t, we rest assured that she is resting safely in the palm of His hand — the One who formed her inmost being, the One who knows the plans He has for her, the One who has redeemed her and called her by name.  He holds her in the palm of His hand, for she is His and He made her.

Psalm 139:14

I praise You because [she] is fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful.