a mother's love

the other day i had  a thought that i am sure millions of mothers have had before me.  oliver jack and i were having a conversation that i have with at least one of my children daily that goes a little something like this:
oliver jack: "mommy, i love you."
me: "i love you too"
oliver jack: "i love you more."
me: "no way!  i love you way more."
oliver jack: "hu-uh...i love you more."
me: "one day, when you have your own babies, you will say, 'she loves me that much?!?'"

after he took his lego plane that we just finished re-building for the 500th time i stood thinking about just how much i love him.  it was in that moment that i realized how tragic it is that the people that i love more than anything in the world will never love me in the same way.  but then i thought about how beautiful that is as well.  it is one of the few and rare moments that we as humans see true selflessness.  i love my children.  i will always love them.  i love them because of who they are.  i love them in spite of who they are.  i loved them they day they were born.  i loved them yesterday.  i love them today.  i will love them tomorrow.  and i will love them...forever.  my love for them has nothing to do with their love for me.  if i never received another hug or another kiss i couldn't love them any less.  my heart would break.  my heart has broken for them many times already.  their negligence has hurt my feelings and occasionally they have spoken hurtful words that has cut straight through to my core.  yet, my love has remain unscathed.  unconditional love doesn't even seem to touch what it is that i have for my children.  it doesn't seem enough.  i believe that my love for my siblings is unconditional.  i love them regardless of the situations in their lives.  i will stand beside them as they fight their own battles or accept consequences of their choices.  i will be there.  for so long this was my concept of unconditional love.  but my children have exposed the depths of love that i have never known before.  i can only imagine that this is the way that God loves us.  however, much like how my own concept of unconditional love was shattered, i believe that God's love is even more profound then even this love.  which blows my mind.  i cannot imagine a love greater...yet i believe it exists. 
i, no doubt, have had conversations with God that went very much like my conversation with oliver jack.  i have doubted his love for me and he has reassured me by saying "one day you will say 'He loves me that much?!'".