*March 12 2015* I enjoy listening to BBC Radio's 'Thought for the Day' - which I can get in Sweden via their podcast. The speakers often express ideas which resonate with me. Last week Anne Atkins ([http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ldl6h](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02ldl6h)) reflected on the horrific story of eight-year-old Ayesha Ali, killed by her own mother who thought Ayesha was possessed by evil spirits and needed to be punished. Ayesha had written notes, describing her belief that her suffering was all her own fault. "A child’s most fundamental requirement," says Anne Atkins, "after physical necessities for food, clothing and shelter are met, is the knowledge that she is loved unconditionally, no matter how she behaves. That his parents will never waver in their adoration, whether he achieves much or little. ... It is the one human affection which requires absolutely nothing in return. You don’t need to do anything. You don’t need to be anyone. I simply love you because you are my child." Spot on. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in his new book 'In God's Hands', the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book for 2015, applies the same point to God our parent. "God loved us before we were born, before we could do anything to deserve that divine love. ... We do not need to do anything to try to curry favour with God. ... God created us, not because God needed us, but wonderfully, exhilaratingly, God created us because God wanted us." What an extraordinary thought. And it's brought home by an old Jewish story related by Tutu in which "the angels and archangels and everyone and everything in all of creation are brought to order by an archangel announcing as he walks in front of a human being: ‘Make way for the image of God’. That’s how remarkable we are."