Delight

One cool thing about being a parent is it gives you the ability to better understand life from God's perspective.

Let me explain.

Most parents of young kids annoy people without kids by constantly telling stories about their kids. I am guilty of this, but no one has had the courage to date to tell me to shut up, that my obsession over Lexi's every breath is only fascinating to me, Elian, and the grandparents. My stories mildly entertain other parents, but only to the degree that they can compare/contrast their child's behaviors to mine.

But why is it that so many of us parents can't stop foaming at the mouth about seemingly insignificant things like waving bye-bye, saying "shoe", and blowing kisses? It's because we are completely infatuated with our kids. And that's where the God perspective comes in. As parents, we are able to experience what it means to delight in our own children. So when we read in the Bible that God delights in us, we get as close as we can this side of heaven to understanding what that really means.

And I don't just delight in the things Lexi does. I delight in merely who she is. She is a beautifully complex creation God used Elian and me to make. She is silly and ambitious and tender. I delight in her when she learns to say a new word (this week it was "up") , when she's sitting quietly, absorbed in her favorite cartoons, and when she sweetly kisses me in the morning to let me know she's awake for the day and she wants to get out of bed.

If my human heart swells this much for my daughter, how much more must God's perfect heart swell for us? And then my mind immediately goes to how unworthy I am to be infintely delighted in by a holy God. But before Satan can have a Field Day with that thought, God reminds me that I am worthy, not because of who I am or what I do, but because I've asked the perfectly worthy Christ to represent me before God.