To Bring Him Glory

Recently, Chris and I celebrated our 11^th anniversary. We are blessed to have parents who live nearby and are happy to keep the boys on such occasions.  Grandparents allow Chris and I some much needed alone time or an opportunity to have an uninterrupted evening with friends. I would never want to be in the same position as those parents who must surrender their children to the other parent for days or sometimes weeks at a time; however, I must admit that we do enjoy the occasional kid-free evening or getting away for a few days. As much as I enjoy and appreciate those rare occasions, what I love even more is to know that I am needed and that our children desire to spend time with us.

There will come a time when our sons will want to be with their friends more than they want to be with us, and one day they will fall in love and not care to be with anyone else but that special girl. Eventually they will marry that special girl because she is the one they love and desire to be with more than any other person. But for now it is us, their mommy and daddy, that they want to be with; to snuggle, play and laugh with. Often one of the boys will say, "Mommy, can you and I just have some alone-time? Just you and me." They don't care if that means just sitting on their bed talking or reading a book. They just want to spend time with me and they will take it anyway they can get it and as often as they can. In fact it feels as though they want our attention twenty-four hours a day; yes, even while they sleep. We wake up with at least one little, squirmy boy in our bed almost every morning. Although it can be exhausting, I am so thankful that I have three boys who love their parents and desire to spend so much time with us. I absolutely love spending time with my family and the fact that my love is reciprocated brings me more joy than anything else on Earth.

Experiencing that kind of love from my children causes me to reflect on how our Heavenly Father must take pleasure in us when we desire to spend time with Him and how much it must hurt Him when that desire fades. We may serve a mysterious God, but I know this: when He has our full attention and we desire nothing more than to be in His presence He delights in us.  One of Chris’s favorite quotes comes from John Piper, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.” It took me a while to wrap my head around that phrase, but it makes so much sense now.

For me to have a deep love for my children and desire to spend time with them is a normal, healthy feeling we have as parents.  But to want my children to adore me so much that they crave my presence above all else is not normal or healthy (aside from a newborn who knows nothing else). In fact, I believe such a longing is rooted in either insecurity or egotism.  My sons enjoy being around their parents. They look like us and they act like us. Their identity; however, is not in us. It would be arrogant to think that any of our children would find ultimate joy and satisfaction in mom and dad. They are simply our children on loan, so to speak, and although we are imperfect parents, we are blessed to be charged with the task to love, teach, discipline and provide for them.

On the other hand, for God to want us to desire Him above all else is not just right, it’s holy. He is a perfect, sovereign God. He is omniscient. He is omnipresent. He is omnipotent. He is Alpha and Omega. His love and forgiveness are infinite. His grace and mercy overflow. His kindness, gentleness and goodness are unmatched. He is the only source of pure joy and genuine peace. Like earthly parents, God loves, teaches, disciplines and provides for His children, but in ways that are beyond our capacity, our understanding. He is the perfect parent.

Despite the fact that humanity thinks so much of itself often with total disregard for its Creator, compared to Him we are scum. Yet that God and Creator has made the ultimate sacrifice so that we (scum) can call him Father. He sent His one and only Son, holy and perfect, to die for us. This is the only way we can experience an intimate relationship with our Lord. Because sin cannot exist in the presence of God, a great and supernatural exchange took place on the cross.  Jesus took on our sin and covered us with His righteousness so that we can be accepted into the family of God.  With this adoption our hearts and minds conform to His will. Our desires change and we crave to be with Him above all else. We find our identity in Him. We are created in His image, but not until we become a child of God, a disciple of Christ, do we begin to reflect who He is. This brings Him glory.

God desires His own glory. People have a hard time accepting a God that desires His own glory above all else (yes, above us), but I believe we have a difficult time with that concept because we view it through human eyes, as though God is like us. For us to long to be glorified would be self-righteous and conceited.  That is because we are sinners. We are not deserving of such an honor. But an infinitely perfect God is deserving of nothing less. For Him to long for anything less than His own glory would make Him less than perfect.

By bringing us into His kingdom and transforming our hearts and minds we find complete joy and satisfaction in Him. In return He is glorified by our praise and exaltation of Him. This sweet communion between our Heavenly Father and His children is the purpose of the cross. “He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.” 1 Thessalonians 5:10.

What I pray most for my children is that they will find complete satisfaction in Christ. I pray that they don’t “shop around” for a substitute, finding temporary pleasures in artificial things. Instead I want them to experience the pure joy found in being a child of God, to long to be in His presence twenty-four hours a day, and to approach Abba Father each morning and ask “Can you and I have some alone time? Just you and me?”