Makes Me Smile
PR31 makes me smile. Sometimes I watch her when she doesn’t know it. (Sometimes she catches me.) But I love to see her caught up in cooking a meal from scratch… like when she is mixing biscuit dough with her hands… or when she cracks an egg while making chocolate chip cookies… or seasoning a roast to put in the crock pot. Ok, I’ve got to stop writing about food because it’s making me hungry. I like to watch her when she doesn’t know I’m looking at her… when she’s just doing her thing. It makes me smile. It delights me.
My kids make me smile. I love to see them when they conquer a new level on Super Mario Brothers… or when they get a 100 on a test they thought was challenging… or when they sing like no one is listening… or when they have fallen asleep in their seat on a road trip. It makes me smile. It delights me.
I am hard pressed to think of something that I would not do for those three. I would go to extreme lengths for them… because I love them… and in that love, they delight me.
Rescued Out of Sheer Delight
Psalm 18 says that God flies/rushes to our rescue… that He speaks/responds to us on His way to rescue us… that He reaches down to rescue us… when we cry out to Him in distress. So, we know that God rescues us in our times of distress. Why does the Psalmist feel the need to come out and say it again in verse 19?
I believe that he writes it again to show us WHY God rescues us. He doesn’t have to rescue us. He doesn’t owe us anything. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. We owe Him everything. The only thing He could get in return is us. And that doesn’t seem like much of a bargain for Him. And yet He rescues us anyway. Why? And so the songwriter of Psalm 18 tells exactly why God rescues us…
Because He delights in us.
It’s that simple. No matter who you are, or what you’ve done, God loves you. And when we accept His adopting of us into His family, there is a delight we bring to His heart. A delight that drives Him to do what might seem ridiculous to others. A delight which drives Him to rescue us in our times of distress. And He does it because seeing us cry out to Him… lean on Him… depend on Him… trust Him… brings a smile to His face.
And so He flies and speaks and reaches to rescue us… out of sheer delight.
So, if you are in a crisis today… if your situation seems overwhelming… if you aren’t sure which way to turn… I’d like to suggest that you cry out to God today from your heart. It will make Him smile… and a rescue will ensue.
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Tomorrow we discover what God does after we have come through a distressing situation… Let’s just say that it ain’t over just because it’s over.
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