His Desire is For Me

I actually wrote this post on Friday, but I was too busy playing track to type it up. It combines a whole bunch of my current obsessions, including the Aaron Keyes song I blogged about earlier, which got me thinking about the idea that God delights in me, seen in 2 Samuel 22:20 and Psalm 18: 19

He brought me out into a broad place; He rescued me, because He delighted in me. 

I wear a ring that I usually forget to think about. The ring features SOS 7:10, but it's divided into two parts. On the outside, it says, "I am my beloved's", a declaration that I am dearly loved and that my identity rests securely in that love. The inside, what no one else really sees, continues with the second half of the verse: His desire is for me.

There is a level of sacred, holy, intimacy that grips my very soul at play here. 

I sit back and flip through our story, my story. God, three in one, had perfect community. He did not need people. He would still be if we were not, foe He is I AM. And yet, He desired us. He made us out of His own will; He wanted to share His world, glory and presence with us. 

And when we sinned, He kept up His pursuit of us, revealing His everlasting love for us in His law, in His commandments, in His justice. 

And in Christ, when we couldn't go back to our Father, He came down to us. 

Love. Came. Down. 

Jesus' desire for relationship with us was greater than His desire to remain in the presence of His Father. 

His desire for us was greater than His desire for power or wealth or prestige on earth. 

His desire for our salvation was greater than His human desire to avoid suffering. 

His desire for my heart, for my life, was greater than His desire for His own. 

I've been slowly reading through the Jesus Storybook Bible, just two stories a day, and my thoughts on the Lord's desire for me were stirred by the re-telling of the prodigal son story from Luke 15. Quick recap on the story: A father has two sons, and the younger one decides he wants to take his inheritance and go out on his own. He squanders the money, living in excess and partying all the time. Eventually, he runs out and has to get a job tending pigs. He realizes that his father is still out there, and he decides to go home and ask to be hired as a servant. He knows he's messed up and that he was irresponsible and that his dad could say "I told you so". And here, I'll pick up with the JSB version: 

"As he starts for home though, he begins to worry. Dad won't love me anymore. I've been too bad. He won't want me for his son anymore. So he practices his I'm-Sorry-Speech. 

All this time, what he doesn't know is that, day after day, his dad has been standing on his porch, straining his eyes, looking into the distance, waiting for his son to come home. He just can't stop loving him. He longs for the sound of his boy's voice. He can't be happy until he gets him back. 

The son is still a long way off, but his dad sees him coming. 

What will the dad do? Fold his arms and frown? Shout, 'That'll teach you!' And, 'Just you wait, young man!'

No. That's not how this story goes. 

The dad leaps off the porch, races down the hill, through the gap in the hedge, up the road. Before his son can even begin his I'm-Sorry-Speech, his dad runs to him, throws his arms around him, and can't stop kissing him. 

'Let's have a party!' his dad shouts. 'My boy's home. He ran away. I lost him - but now I have him back!'

Jesus told them, 'God is like the dad who couldn't stop loving his boy. And people are like the son who said, 'Does my dad really want me to be happy?' '

Jesus told people this story to show them what God is like. And to show people what they are like. 

So they could know, however far they ran, however well they hid, however lost they were - it wouldn't matter. Because God's children could never run too far, or be too lost, for God to find them"

I've read Luke 15 a lot. I've probably written about it more than once. But I love it. And there was something about reading this simple version of it that really struck me. I like how the son is afraid of what might happen, and then his dad goes far beyond his greatest hope. I think of how we can be afraid of God because we don't really know Him or trust His love and grace.

But He delights in us.

He desires us.

The Lord your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17 

If the Mighty One desires me, can anything shake my peace? My joy? 

May His desire be enough for me.