God's Delight

In the end, that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.  I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God.  By God Himself, it is not!  How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.  Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us.  It is written that we shall "stand before" Him, shall appear, shall be inspected.  The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.  To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son---it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.  But so it is.

--from The Weight of Glory by C.S.Lewis

How is it that we can "delight" God?  When I think of the mother of children, I can see it.  Her face turns daily on the child who delights her heart.  Her delight is not diminished by the exhaustion of getting up all night, nor by the mess that needs to be cleaned up almost hourly.  I see her concern as the children grow and tend to choose unwise paths, leading them almost to destruction at times, and I see  the terrible expression on her face at those who threaten harm to her beloved children.  I see her anger when the children are threatening to destroy themselves---because they are destroying that which she sees as precious, valuable and irreplaceable, that which she loves more than words can tell. 

In Chapter 8 of the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom [i.e., the Sprit of God] speaks out as a Mother and Teacher:

...when He established the heavens I was there,....

when he set for the sea its limit...

Then was I beside him as his craftsman,

and I was his delight day by day,

Playing before him all the while,

playing on the surface of his earth;

and I found delight in the sons of men.

So now, O children, listen to me;

instruction and wisdom, do not reject!

Happy the man who obeys me,

and happy those who keep my ways,

Happy the man watching daily at my gates,

waiting at my doorposts;

For he who finds me finds life,

and wins favor from the Lord;

But he who misses me harms himself;

all who hate me love death.

God has asked only one thing of us---to make time and space for Him in our lives, to listen "at His doorposts," to "watch daily at [Her] (Wisdom's) doorposts" to learn from her, to "win favor from the Lord."  If we do this, we will be instructed by Wisdom and thus delight the Lord.  Those who hate Wisdom and instruction "love death" and those who love death will see the Face of God which is 'the terror of the Universe," in the words of C.S.Lewis. 

It is not the children who fall seven times a day who need fear God, for Scripture says that the 'just' man falls seven times a day, but out of them all, the Lord helps him.  It is rather those who spurn instruction, who cannot or will not learn from their falls that the Lord despises. From the story of the Prodigal Son, we know how the father delighted in the return of his son, never minding what transpired in the meantime, but rejoicing instead to throw a big party and to re-clothe the boy in the garments of ownership.  The son reflected on the state he was in and recognized that he was worse off in rebellion than he had been in obedience.  He learned instruction and wisdom.  He thought his father would be angry with him and make him undergo a time of testing to be received back into favor.  How surprised and humbled he must have been at the father's "delight" at his return, with no questions asked!

What will God think of us in the end?  Which will be the Face of God turned upon us?  I think it will not depend on how many times we fell, but on how willing we were to listen and to learn.  In that way, He will be able to delight in us as an artist delights in his work, or a father his son, because as we sit at His feet, he is able to pour Wisdom into our very souls.