Delight

I was looking through all the pictures we have of the dogs through their lives last week, and one word  came to my mind frequently: Delight. We delight in being with Gimli and Virginia! We delight in the relationships we have with them. When we first picked up Gimli, we were overjoyed to finally have the puppy we'd wanted for years. He cried all night, needed lots of play time, chewed up our stuff, peed all over our carpets and our bed once, but even with all of that, we still delighted in him. We still loved him, enjoyed spending time with him, and seeing him grow and learn new things.

Now that we have Gimli and Virginia, we still delight in them. This morning, it was rainy, cold, and wet outside. Paul walked the dogs as usual, and also as usual, Virginia took her sweet time to take care of her business. The three of them came back inside soaking wet. I could tell Paul was frustrated with her, but still picked her up and dried her off sweetly so she wouldn't be cold.  And there is seriously nothing better on the planet than when they jump up into our bed at night and snuggle up to me! My heart just fills up with joy in those moments, even if I am uncomfortable and can't sleep!  We delight in them, not because they do anything for us of value (they don't), or because they are perfectly well behaved (they certainly are not), or because of how they treat and respond to us. We delight in them because they are our pups and we love having them in our lives.

As I looked through all these photos and thought about how much I delight in our pups, I couldn't help but also think about how much God delights in each of us. My delight of the pups is nothing compared to how God delights in His children!  I am often tempted to believe that God is frustrated or annoyed at me when I blow it, or that He doesn't know or care that I'm alive when He seems distant, but that is absolutely not true. The Bible is overwhelmingly clear that He loves us with an everlasting love that is not dependent on the things we do or don't do, or how we love Him in return. He loves us because He loves us.  What a wonderful, glorious, and joyful reality!

I am so thankful for the little glimpse of the unconditional love God has for me by learning to love these little creatures that are fully dependent on me and helpless without me. I leave you with a selection of verses from Romans 8 that describe the infinite and complete love of God for His people:

From Romans 8 :He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? ... Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.