Listen to your voicemail and look through the following pics to get a good idea of what your granddaughter is up to. (I think the last one portrays the end of the one-sided conversation where I was saying, “Tell them goodbye, Livia,” and she responded with a phone-clutching, “No. NO!”)

Livia-the-Ice-Cream-Lover greatly enjoys a cookie ice cream sandwich after lunch at Grandma and Grandpa’s place. Fortunately for me, she likes her Daddy’s cookie best (heh heh).

Livia-the-Dog-Lover attempts to chase down the family dog, Kira. Fortunately for Kira, the toddler still toddles while the old dog still runs.

It’s easy to look at God as a cosmic clockmaker who created this universe, got it ticking just right, then let go and sat back to see what happened. But the Bible says something very different in the book of Romans. It says that we’re God’s children – that He loves us as a father. Just writing those words, I can’t grasp the full meaning of being a daughter of God. But when I look at my own daughter and see how much I love her, how readily I’ve give anything to keep her healthy and whole, then I get a more complete picture of how God the Father loves His children. It’s almost unfathomable to grasp that the Creator of the universe loves me and cares about me on a very personal level.

Recommended reading: Joie’s latest post over at The Grand, and From Fear to Freedom by Rose Marie Miller.