Early on one of those recent lovely sunny mornings we've had, as I lay in bed listening to the birds waking up outside my window, the chirping and calling got louder and louder with more and more birds and different birds waking up and joining in the chorus.

I wondered what birds talk about first thing in the morning.

I wondered whether they might be giving thanks to God for the new day - they sounded so absolutely cheerful! They prompted me to thank God for the new day too, as lay in my bed.

That led my thoughts to wander on about what we can learn from animals.

I have a dog - a small fox terrier who is really like one of our children.

Whenever I come home, he greets me with such joy and excitement that it feels as if I have been away six months - even if all I've done is just pop out to the front gate to check the letter box! I really know he's missed me and that he just loves to be with me in whatever I'm doing.

It reminds me that that's how God feels about me when I come to spend time with him - and that's how he feels about you too. And it's also how he'd like us to feel about him.

My dog trusts my husband and me completely. When something goes wrong for him he comes to us straight away for help. On Sunday I felt him standing next to me and really leaning into my leg. I knew he wasn't happy. When I looked at him I realised his hind legs weren't holding him properly. So I lifted him up and held him for a few minutes. He then got down and ran around as normal. Not long after, he came to us again, shaking and wobbling. We took him to the vet who could find nothing wrong with him. So he guessed that the dog has had a seizure. This kind of thing has happened before. The dog always comes to us for help.

It reminds me that that's the way God wants us to trust him and come to him to have our needs met.

My dog is truly a 'lap dog'. He likes to snuggle on a knee whenever he can and he seems to need very regular doses of 'snuggle'. He'll be about his own business outside, but a soon as one of us sits down for a cuppa or a read of the paper, he appears next to us, looking forlorn and what I call 'cuddle-deprived'. As soon as he gets lifted up onto a knee, he exudes an atmosphere of "Ahhhh! This is where I belong".

Have you ever felt a sense of being 'cuddle-deprived'? - a feeling that something is missing, that you're drifting along, sort of anchorless (or is it rudderless?)

I think we're all a bit like my dog - we need to be close to someone we trust completely. We all need a person we can go to in the midst of our busyness, who will surround us with love and protect us when we feel threatened, comfort us when we feel sad and lonely, rejoice with us when we feel glad - someone who is always there and never too busy for us.

The only person I can think of who fits that description is God.

I sometimes look around at people in the street - and I'm looking at all of you here today - and I wonder: Do you know how important you are to God? Do you know that the reason God brought you into being was because he wanted you to be his friend? Do you know that you are so important to him that he even knows exactly how many hairs you have on your head? He cares deeply about every detail of you.

God loves all his creation. Getting back to the birds outside my window - God cares about each one of them too. He cares that they have enough food and he knows and cares when they get hurt or lose one of their eggs from their nest.

But I know that to him, I am worth more than all the birds in the world.

And so are you.

Here's a poem by Helen Steiner Rice:

It's amazing; and incredible,
But it's as true as it can be,
God loves and understands us all
And that means YOU and ME-
His grace is all sufficient
For both the YOUNG and OLD,
For the lonely and the timid,
For the brash and for the bold-
His love knows no exceptions,
So never feel excluded,
No matter WHO or WHAT you are
Your name has been included-
And no matter what your past has been,
Trust God to understand,
And no matter what your problem is
Just place it in His Hand-
For in all of our UNLOVELINESS
This GREAT GOD LOVES US STILL,
He loved is since the world began
And what's more, HE ALWAYS WILL!

---