God likes you

Chris Johnson http://americandecency.org/ God likes you. Why isn't that said more often? We hear that God loves us all the time and that's vital, but there are people that I love that I don't like very much. There are people that I wish the best for, but I'm much happier when they're nowhere near me. What an underappreciated idea -that God doesn't just love His people, he likes us. It's much more pleasant to serve a God that you know isn't saying, "finally!" when you get something right, but is actually delighting in your satisfaction in Him. At a men's conference Dad (known to most of you as Bill) and I attended, Pastor Matt Chandler awesomely and humorously described it like this: "All the Chandler babies walk at like 13 or 14 months... What I noticed then and what I’m noticing right now is that for all our kids it’s the same... They pull themselves up on the coffee table or couch and they slide themselves along while holding on. And then they will take their hands off and waddle and then grab hold of something real quick. And here is really where the creative design of God occurs. You start to see it and marvel in it. What will happen is they will let go and for whatever reason on that day, physics take over. I know that all kids are different, but predominantly kids have fat, fat heads and skinny, skinny bodies... But here’s what they do. They let go of it, and then the fat head falls forward and now physics takes over. In that moment you’ve got two choices as that fat head begins to lead the body forward: you either stick your foot out or ! die. See you’re still mainly cartilage and so they stick the foot out. Now with physics, we’ve got momentum. So step, step, step, fall, and then what happens? The place freaks out. It’s like you just cured cancer. 'Yeah! Are you tweeting it? Okay, you tweet it. I’ll retweet. Okay, are you going to post it on your Facebook? Did we get video of that?' And so there’s this kind of monumental celebration of the fact that your kid took three or four steps and then fell down. ...In all of my circle and my friends, I’ve never seen any of the parents respond to step, step, step, fall by going, 'Idiot!' I’ve never seen a father or a mother point to their kid who falls after four steps go, 'This kid is a moron. For a bacon bit I can make the dog walk on it’s back feet for two miles.' The parents never get in a fight, 'Baby this is your family. This stuff is not in my family. We’re walkers; we walk. So this is on you. I know I’ve got some stuff that I’ve passed on to the kid, but this is you.' I’ve just never seen that happen. There is always this explosion of rejoicing that took place over four steps. (This was taken from a sermon transcript from the Village Church) That picture of God as a father delighting in us as His children is really exciting to me as a new dad, because I know now how excited I get when my daughter passes milestones. My wife and I had a very similar moment to what Chandler described just last week when my 10 month old decided to crawl up stairs for the first time. And yes, I got it on video. So I now know the pleasure of seeing my child grow and develop and the idea that God feels that way about me inspires me that much more to learn to walk with Him. Dan Doriani made a similar point in a Gospel Coalition Blog post: "If you want a picture of God's unconditional, sacrificial love, watch parents care for an infant in the first weeks of life. A baby boy does not, cannot, do anything for his parents. He can't even give them a smile. A baby girl is a bundle of needs, demands, and interruptions that obliterate normal life. Yet as we watch the parents' eyes, we see the look of unconditional love. They feed, change, hold, and comfort a baby who has done nothing, and will do nothing, for them. But how they love him! There is no better image of God's unmerited favor, freely given. John says, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are" (1 John 3:1). If the infant cries or grows ill, do good parents become angry at her? No, they grieve at their child's tears and long to help her. In this we resemble our Father in heaven. But he constantly demonstrates the love we show fitfully. Psalm 103 says, "As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him" (Psa. 103:13). In this way, God has written hints of his gospel and grace in our hearts." I would add to these illustrations God's defense of His children. The other day I was changing my daughter's diaper and she was lying on her changing table, taking extreme pleasure in the fact that she wasn't wearing pants. I was momentarily distracted with the box of wipes, or something, and she decided to roll over off the changing table from which she would have fallen about 3 feet and landed on her nose. Fortunately for her, Dad turned into Superman and intercepted her fall in midair. I set her down and stood there with my hands on my hips and my cape flowing in the breeze and then put my underwear back inside my pants and we went downstairs. Now, I'll admit that I've let her fall before. I've watched her pushing her little toys and seen that she was about to fall and just let it happen, because she needs to learn real-world physics. But when she was about to fall in a way that she would seriously hurt herself, I freaked out and came to the rescue. I'd say God does the same thing, except that He doesn't freak out. I read Psalm 18 this morning and this is what verse 6 says, "In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears." The rest of the chapter describes the glory of God descending from His throne and dealing with David's enemies. vv.13-17: The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. And he sent out his arrows and scattered them; he flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. He sent from on high, he took me; he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. God will defend His children. What a loving (and liking) God we serve.