How Much Love?

This is a simple little story, but it's very sweet just the same. I think you will like it, and I know your Daddy will!

One particular Daddy I know had been trying to find out just how much his little boy Francis really loved him, and Francis would keep saying, "Heaps and heaps," and, "Lots and lots," and, "Bushels and bushels."

Just to tease him, Daddy said that that wasn't enough; so finally Francis threw his arms around Daddy's neck, hugged him ever so tightly, and said that that ought to answer his question properly.

By and by, when Daddy was reading, having almost forgotten the fun they had just had together, Francis called him.

"Come over here, Daddy; I want to show you something."

"Sorry, dear, I'm busy now."

"Oh, do come," urged Francis. "It's something very special."

"I'm reading," growled Daddy, good-humoredly.

"But you must come," said Francis. "I want to ask you something. Really I do."

"Oh, very well then," said Daddy, putting his book down with a big sigh. "What is it now?"

Then he noticed what Francis had spread out on the floor.

"Here," he said, "what are you doing with my special map?"

Francis ignored the question to ask one of his own.

"Is this a map of the United States?"

"Yes, of course it is," said Daddy. "It's a road map. It shows the main roads all over the country.

"I thought it was," said Francis. "Now which was the road we traveled on last year when we drove all the way over?"

Daddy thought about his book and groaned.

"That one, dear," he said. "That big red one."

"How long is it?"

"Oh, about two thousand miles. Maybe more than that."

"And, Daddy, what are all these other lines? Red lines and black lines?"

"They are all the other roads."

"And where do they go?"

"Every place, I suppose."

"And how long are they?"

Francis looked up expectantly, but Daddy hardly knew how to answer.

"I don't suppose anybody knows," he said. "But I should say they are thousands and thousands and thousands of miles long."

"Might be millions and millions and millions of miles long?"

"Might be," said Daddy in desperation.

"Well, then, Daddy, that's how much I love you. All that and even more!"

"Oh, you dear little thing!" cried Daddy, forgetting all about his book now and picking Francis up in his arms. "So all this time you have been trying to find some way of telling me how much you love me!"

And as he hugged Francis again, a little text came back to his mind: "As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so [Yahweh] pitieth them that fear Him." Ps. 103:11-13.

"Yes," he said to himself, "Someone else has been trying a long time now to tell us all how much He loves us, too."

As the old hymn says: "Wide, wide as the ocean, High as the heavens above, Deep, deep as the deepest sea, Is my Saviour's love."