Hugs

Photo is of my grandmother on the left, her mother and her sister.



I have been thinking about hugs alot, it seems. There are many forms of hugs, there is the lover's hug, the friend's hug, the hug of those who simply wish each other well. Many of them I cannot even remember because it seems the hug is something that is limitless in its expression.
Most of the time I enjoy being hugged, of course this even counts the hugs given to me by my teen age sons that ends up in a struggle to get away before they begin to tickle me or snarf (as we call it) in my ear like a dog because they know it tickles like the dickens! Hugs are wonderful!

My grandmother, I believe gave me the best hugs of all. Maybe it was because of the love that was between us or maybe it was simply because I knew that grandma would never really do anything to hurt me that her hugs were so wonderful because it certainly wasn't because they were gentle.
Grandma's hugs were given with enormous zest. She would reach out and grab me around my rib cage and squeeze with all her might and 90% of the time I would end up saying "ow!" before she would let go because her squeeze of love always hurt a little. I would never trade one of her hugs for anything in the world. To me, they were simply wonderful. They were the show of love that I needed in my life. Right now, I'd do anything possible to have one of her hugs. I miss her all the time, it seems.

In my life, I feel that Jesus gives me "Grandma hugs" once in a while as well. Sometimes there are those little moments that I know Jesus is here but the pain or the sorrow or whatever I am going through seems almost more than I can bear. It's in those moments that I feel His hug. He reaches out and grabs me just as Grandma used to do. He squeezes just enough to hear me say "ow!" and then I realize that He's hugged me and I'm going to be Ok. Sometimes it seems like life can give enough blows that it's hard to even breathe then I realize that it's because Jesus is squeezing me and saying, "See, I love you!" and with that, I become more and better because of the trial I have been put through.

I know that at times I lack in what I am asked to and in some cases not asked to do but do anyway for Him, I lacked much in what I was never asked to do but did for love for my grandmother as well. I do not think that she loved me less because of it and I do not think Jesus loves me less either. Just in case I'd forget this though, He gives me some mighty hugs. With each one, just like grandma's but in much greater form, I become better for receiving them. With each one I become closer to Him.

I once read somewhere that the trials in life should never come between you and Jesus, they should simply press you closer to Him. His hugs can be hard to bear sometimes unless you're in the right mindset, unless you know what is really going on. Then you have to be prepared to be pressed closer to Him. Sometimes it hurts and I cannot deny that.

Sometimes I wish that He'd not love me quite so much because the hugs would not hurt as much. Then I realize that I've let that little worry come between Jesus and myself and that He was working hard to get me to see that He needed me closer to Him because of it, not farther away. Each and every little pain we go through in life has the potential to bring us closer to Jesus, if we would only let it.

I'm not perfect and never will be. I am always and forever letting those hugs separate Him and I for a time and then see it for what it is and then ask Jesus to squeeze me just a little tighter so that I might feel His love in my life just as I felt Grandma's.

There are always going to be trials in a person's life, I just hope that each and every one of us realizes that they are there for a purpose and ask Jesus to simply hug us closer because I, for one could not make it without a hug once in a while.