A tender touch

What woman, child, or man does not desire tender affection? I realized last night that tenderness is such a wonderful and descriptive word, such a definitive action. What is tenderness? I know that the Bible portrays one aspect of God as tender. I think of God the Father as tender. I think of good daddys as tender. I think of a husband as tender. (Maybe because I'm female I'm not thinking of women as tender, but I know that they can be too.)

So, what is tenderness?

Here's my brief and limited attempt to define it. Tenderness is gentle, quietly awe-struck love coming from a strong person. Think God with us. Think dad with child. Think husband with wife (or wife with husband). Think child with puppy. I don't mean strong in only the physical sense, but strong in an emotional and/or spiritual sense too. Tenderness exudes as a result of an unconditional love that one feels toward another, not because of what the other has done but simply because of who the other is.

I don't know that I have a real grasp of tenderness, but I guess that I know what it looks like when I see it. A person's eyes and/or touch makes it obvious.