After his baptism, Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (Matthew 3:16-17)
As I read those verses recently, I thought about how awesome it would have been to be present in that moment. Wouldn’t it have been cool to hear the voice of God as He introduced His beloved son Jesus to the world? At some point in between the wondering and questioning, the still small voice of God spoke and said, “This is how I see you now. This is how I see all my children now.”
Out of that revelation I have processed the concrete truth, not just the abstract idea, that I bring great joy to the Creator of the universe. The very same One who brings everything into existence out of nothing, through His voice and Word, has called me a dearly loved (beloved) child of His. My spirit has moved from believing I heard those words to believing the words I heard, and more importantly, believing the Father who spoke those words.
I also believe that the accuser will come to me and attempt to plant doubts. That’s what the evil one does. His oldest questions, first asked in the Garden of Eden, will be pulled out of his bag of crud. Maybe they will get dusted off, maybe not; but the questions will come none-the-less, and they are these:
Did God really say that? Do you believe Him? (my paraphrase from Genesis 3:1-4)
To which, in the power of the Holy Spirit, I will reply, “Yes! I am dearly loved of God and I bring him great joy. I do not always understand how I bring Him joy or why He loves me, but He most certainly said it and I believe God! That settles it for me. Now get out of here, Satan!”
Beloved, that is how God now sees those who are in Christ, and that is how our joy-filled Father introduces His children to the world. That makes me smile. I hope you’re smiling too.
Grace to you.
David Paukner
