By: Steve Wilmot
Edgerton, Ohio
As I prayed for my grandkids last week, I thanked God for blessing me with them. I reflected on how they enrich my life in so many wonderful ways.
Whenever they sprint into our house or anywhere else I am, they lift my spirits regardless of where I am on the emotional roller coaster. I drop anything I’m doing to listen to their stories, problems, or attempted jokes. They get my full attention because I love them so much.
No matter what kind of day I’m having, once I see them the day isn’t quite so bad. In an instant, they paint a smile on my face and erase the pressures and stress of the day.
At least for a little while. It’s not even because of anything they do. All they need to do is show up and my heart overflows with love.
As I mulled that over and thanked God for them, I sensed him tell me the way I feel about my grandkids is the same way he feels about me.
Whenever I come to him or talk to him, he delights in me. It makes his day. I am the center of his attention.
Tucked away in the writings of Zephaniah is an obscure verse I recalled in that moment. “For the Lord, your God has arrived to live among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take great delight in you. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will exult over you by singing a happy song” (Zephaniah 3.17, NLT and NIV).
Did you know that? The word translated “delight” pictures how a bridegroom relishes his new bride as they dance their first dance together on their wedding day.
Recall David’s actions on the day he transported the Ark of the Lord into Jerusalem. Overcome with delight in God, David “danced before the Lord with all his heart.” He shouted and leapt before the Lord. His exuberance drew criticism from his wife as a humiliating way for a king to act.
That’s what God looks like when he delights over you. He sings a happy song. Something like this: “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you.”
Sometimes we get all hung up when we imagine God only loves us when we do what’s good and right. But even then we’re never sure we’ve done enough for him to delight in us.
Consider God’s message through Jeremiah to a nation with a long record of rebellion against him. This message came after God told Jeremiah in no uncertain terms, “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you” (Jeremiah 7.16). To make sure Jeremiah didn’t think he was kidding, God repeated this message three more times (11.14, 14.11, 15.1).
Yet a few chapters later, God cries out, “Oh! Ephraim (Israel) is my dear, dear son, my child in whom I take delight! Every time I mention his name, my heart bursts with longing for him! Everything in me cries out for him. Softly and tenderly, I wait for him” (31.20 MSG).
Did you hear that? Even when God decreed judgment on Israel because they’d crossed the line and turned their back on him for decades, he couldn’t help himself — he delighted in them still. Not in their actions; in them. Not because they’d been obedient but because they are his children.
These verses should silence any doubt that God’s love for you is conditioned on your behavior. Sin must be punished; discipline must be imposed. But because he delights in us, it hurts him more than it hurts us when he must punish us.
God once told Jesus, “You are my Son, whom I love. In you I am well pleased.”
What we sometimes forget is God didn’t say this about Jesus after he had performed a miracle or healed someone of blindness. It wasn’t after he raised someone from the dead or preached a great sermon. God didn’t declare his delight in Jesus as he died on the cross in payment for our sins.
No, God spoke these words to Jesus before he did any of these great deeds. He said them at Jesus’ baptism before he began any ministry. The basis for his love and pleasure in Jesus was simply that he was his Son.
That’s how I enjoy my grandchildren. I don’t delight in them and look forward to the next time we can be together because they’re always good. Sometimes they aren’t, but that doesn’t matter to me. I love them and delight in them on their good days when they’re fun to be with and on their not-so-good days.
As much as I love and delight in my grandkids, it doesn’t hold a candle to the way God loves them and delights in them. Or in you.
Hard to imagine, huh? Believe it; it’s how God feels about you.
Look! Can you see him leaping and dancing with all his might while he’s thinking about you? Listen, can’t you hear his song? “You are my sunshine, my only sunshine…”
(This column was first published February 23, 2006 and is included in “Best of Pastor’s Ponderings,” available on Amazon.)
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.