Once upon a time, in the middle of all his creations, God created a little girl whom he adored. Obviously, he adored all his little girls, but this one was extra-special. And God looked at her and loved her, because He had made her, and because she was perfect. And the little girl smiled up at God and thought she’d never seen anyone so incredible.

And God looked at the little girl and said, “Little girl, you are special. And you are unique. And I love you.” And the little girl looked at God in absolute adoration and said, “I love you, too.” And God smiled at the little girl and said, “Little girl, because I love you, I am going to show you Who I am and teach you to really love Me.” And the little girl, who had no idea what He meant but who knew her Daddy loved her, smiled up at God and said okay.

God looked at the little girl and said, “The first thing I am going to teach you is what it means to be cherished, because I cherish you.” And so He gave the little girl to a Mommy and Daddy who had been praying for a little girl, and who did, indeed, cherish her as no one else ever would. And the little girl loved her Mommy and Daddy very much indeed and thanked God very much and quickly realized that God cherished her as much as her Mommy and Daddy. And she thought that was pretty cool.

And then God looked at her and said, “Cherished little girl, now I am going to teach you what it means to create, because I created everything.” And so he taught the little girl to play the piano and to paint gorgeous pictures with finger paints. And the little girl created songs and drew hundreds of pictures and was delighted. And she showed all of them to God and He smiled.

“Cherished and creative little girl,” God said, “Now I am going to teach you to be beautiful, because I am beautiful.” And the little girl began to take ballet classes and she learned what beauty was, and then she learned that she was beautiful. And God smiled because He loved her and she was beautiful to Him and to everyone around her. And the little girl, in turn, thought that she was the most cherished and most beautiful little girl God had ever seen, and that made her all the more beautiful.

“Beautiful little girl,” said God, “Now I am going to teach you what it means to have knowledge, because I know everything.” And the little girl began to study math and reading and writing. She didn’t find knowledge as much fun as creating things and being beautiful, at first, but because she was fascinated by everything around her, she ended up learning those things, plus history and science and Latin and lots of other little things. But that took her a very long time, as God knew it would.

And before she had fully grasped knowledge, God took His little girl and said, “Now I am going to teach you about pain, because I was hurt for you.” And the little girl didn’t quite understand what God meant. And one day she suddenly found herself among people who hated her, and they slapped her and threw rocks at her and told her she was ugly and worthless, and at the same time some of her friends betrayed her and the little girl was very miserable. And the little girl didn’t realize that it was a lesson from God and began to think about herself. And she hurt very, very badly, and whenever God tried to come close, she would push Him away.

And God looked at her and said, “My beautiful little girl, now I am going to teach you what it means to be alone, because I was forsaken.” And the little girl who had pushed God out suddenly realized that there was no one left, and that she was alone, and she cried.

And God said, “Remember you are cherished?” And the little girl did not listen, so God said, “Remember you are beautiful?” So the little girl went back to the beautiful things and tried to dance for a very long time, but it wasn’t quite the same. And the little girl was unhappy, because she could not understand why she hurt so badly, and she began to sin. And the more she sinned, the more miserable she became.

And God said, “But now I am going to teach you about forgiveness, because I have already forgiven you.” And he kissed the little girl on her head and showed her how to forgive all the people who had hurt her. And the little girl tried, very hard, but just like knowledge, she took a very long time to forgive them all, and God began to teach her more before she was through.

And while she was still struggling to obey the command to forgive, God said, “But now I am going to teach you about hope, because I am a God of hope.” And he took the little girl by the hand and sent her to people who reminded her that she was beautiful and cherished. And the little girl realized that she had been a very foolish little girl, except that she still could not understand why she had had to hurt so badly. But God knew that that would come.

So God looked at the little girl and said, “Now I am going to teach you about compassion, because I am compassionate.” So he sent friends to the little girl who had also been hurt, in many ways, and the little girl, because she had been hurt, and because she too had sinned, was able to cry with them.

And the little girl decided that she wanted to do more than cry with her friends, so she looked up at God and asked Him for wisdom, so that she could counsel them as well. And God gave the little girl wisdom, and before she’d had it for very long, she looked up at God and said, “You let me suffer and sin so that I could understand them better.” And God looked at her and smiled and said, “Exactly.”

And at this point the little girl realized that all this was pretty cool, and she asked God to keep going. And God said, “But the next thing on my list is brokenness, because I was broken for you.” And the little girl said, “I don’t care.” And so God took the little girl and took away the thing that made her beautiful and some of the friends who’d given her hope. And she was very far away from the people who cherished her most, and she was hurting very much, so she walked away and tried to lock herself in a wall of her knowledge, because that was all she had left. So God took away her knowledge too.

And the little girl cried and cried and cried and asked God whether there was anything she could still have. And God said, “Your next gift is peace,” and gave her His peace. And the little girl was filled to overflowing with it.

And God looked at the little girl and said, “And the next thing I have to show you is love, because I am love.” But the little girl looked at him and said, “I know. I already understand love.” But God just laughed, and he gave to her a friend who loved her and who made her heart leap for joy. And the little girl just looked at God and said, “But love’s so big!” And God said, “Yeah, isn’t it cool?” And the little girl realized that it, indeed, was. And then God reminded the little girl that He was Love, and that was cooler still.

And the little girl looked at God and said, “Wow. I could keep learning these forever. I’m never going to understand you.” And God said, “Yes, but little girl, there’s one more thing you need to learn.”

And the little girl was confused, until God said, “Do you trust me? Do you have faith?” And the little girl said, “Of course! I’ve been learning that all along!” And God said, “Yes, but do you have it now?” And the little girl sure thought so. So God said to the little girl, “Then will you trust me if I ask you to give up the young man who taught you love?” And the little girl took a very long time and cried a little and finally said “Yes.” And God smiled and said, “I want you to know that I love you that way first.” The little girl looked up at God and said, “Thank you.”

And God looked at the little girl and smiled, and the little girl said, “What?” And God just smiled a little harder, because He loved her so much. Finally God leaned over and said, “There’s one more thing you are: Mine. Forever.” And the little girl smiled back.