He delights.
Last year a good friend of mine remarked offhandedly, “I don’t know why the Lord created me, except to worship Him.”
Now, his was not an untrue statement, but I couldn’t shake the feeling there was more to it, too. If all God wanted was worship, wouldn’t a less chaotic way be to let the trees and mountains cry out? But He chose to create you and me.
So, recently, I was thinking about it, and I just asked. “God, what made You want to create us?”
And then I realized…
He couldn’t not.
Psalm 18:19b says, “He rescued me, because he delighted in me” [ESV]. I think He created us for the same reason - out of delight.
I called my friend back, and this is what I said:
“Before you were conceived or formed in your mother’s womb, God knew you. He dreamed you up. And then, as His mind imagined you, He couldn’t help Himself. The mere thought of you was too much. He had to act on it. He had to create you for real. He wanted you so bad, He had to put you on the earth. He just delights in you.”
Repeat it to yourself. He delights in me.
The thought makes your eyes sting, doesn’t it?
The God who created the Northern Lights out of a void and New Zealand out of dust looked at His world and all He’d created, and He asserted, “It is good.” And then, with His infinite mind and perfect heart, He thought up you and me. And he added, “But it ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”
Then He smiled, leaned forward, breathed life into Adam’s lungs.
And we began.
"The LORD your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing." – Zephaniah 3:17 [NIV]
Without wax,
Sarah.
"If all God wanted was worship, wouldn’t a less chaotic way be to let the trees and mountains cry out?"
ReplyDeleteSpot on, and excellent thoughts on delight.
Thinking about it further, what exactly about us does God delight in? Why did he HAVE to create us for real?
I think it's something like this...
God. Is. Love.
We know that. But in this context, let's unpack it.
God already existed as perfect Love in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yet perfect Love chose to create in Its image and then open Itself to welcome all into that perfect Love.
The rest of creation would do well enough without humans. Creation is ordered to grow, die, rebirth, cycle, etc.
But it's humans—that which is called very good—that give meaning to all this creation.
The Creator has thus partnered with His creation. The first job to man was to NAME creation. To make meaning out of it all. And this is ongoing.
Of course, mankind has a terrible history of destruction and making a mess of things and not getting along.
But still, God's delight continues. He knows what we were created for. Love is patient. He waits for us to figure it out, once more. And He continues to draw mankind, and all of creation, in.
I completely agree, Derrick. Your post made me think of a conversation that's been floating around in my head for a couple weeks.
Delete---
"Jesus. Why do you love me, after everything that's happened?"
"I know you."
"That's my point, though. You know everything I've ever done. You know how I hurt people."
"That isn't who you are. That's just who this world has made you. I know who you really are."
"...And why do you love me?"
"Because I love you."
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That last line sums it up, for me. He loves us because He loves us. Like you said - He is love. I don't remember who said this, but I read once, "Man was born of the laughter of the Trinity." I think of that phrase often. It's a powerful image of affection. The perfect relationship of the Trinity, in its (their) holy joy, sought to bring us in, too. Even knowing how messy our relationship would be, God ventured beyond that perfect Trinity, and created us.
You're so right. God being Love is the answer. The only answer.