My Journey Into Worship, Part 2

The word worship, when translated from the Greek, means "To kiss towards". I had an experience that helped me understand this concept better than anything else. My daughter, Dyllan had a tremendously difficult time with teething. As I suspect most babies do, she got fevers, a runny nose, and was very cranky most of the time for about 4 months. During that phase, she never slept more than about 3 hours at a time, and mostly it was less than that. When her sixth tooth finally broke through the gum line, we both had our first full REM cycle of sleep. She slept until 5am, and when she finally did wake up, I went in to feed her. I sat in the rocker and nursed her with a feeling of joy for having slept so much that night, but also relief because I knew she felt better. It's agonizing as a parent to know that your child is in pain, but there's only so much you can do about it. During that tough time, I tried to give her extra affection and LOTS of kisses.

That night, when I sat in the rocker she kept looking up at me, and it seemed like she was trying to crawl up my chest. I could tell she was tired, and wanted to go back to sleep, but there was something she was trying to do first. I sensed what she wanted, so I picked her up and put her face in front of mine. She leaned in, and gave me a sweet and beautiful kiss. It was heart-melting, but more importantly, it was completely unsolicited. When she finished, she gave me one more, and then went back to nursing and swiftly fell back to sleep.

I will never forget how it felt to be kissed by my daughter who I love and have sacrificed so much for. Sometimes I ask for a kiss, and she usually complies. Those kisses are wonderful, but the ones that are unexpected are even better, because they are of her own volition.

I don't know why she kissed me. Maybe she was imitating what I had been doing. Maybe she was feeling insecure, and wanted to connect with me. Maybe she learned what it felt like to be kissed, and wanted me to feel that. 1 John 4:19 says that "We love because He first loved us". In our difficult times, when God is so close, holding us, bearing with us, and loving us without expectation, we learn to love Him back. We kiss Him because he first showed us how.