I have been overwhelmed by an utterly stupefying truth - that we poor, weak, sin-darkened creatures can bring God JOY. We ARE His joy.

God, who created all things by His Word, whose eternal thought included this vast magnificence of space and time, who lived a glorious life of perfect love and communion in which nothing was lacking and in which all was always present to Him and all things possible, this God (uncreated, without beginning or end, independent of any cause or power, absolutely free, absolutely perfect, absolutely complete, and absolutely content within Himself) willed creation into existence, saw that it was good (and innocent and beautiful), and He was pleased.

Then He created man in His own image and likeness, formed him "from the earth," not by a word but by His own handiwork (not "let man be," but "let us make man"), and breathed into him "the breath of life." And He walked with man.

And then man turned from God; sin came and would have ruined everything, had it not been for the fact that God had already intended that the Creator should become part of creation, that the Son would assume a created nature (the Incarnation being one of His eternal ideas, so that He never existed without this idea of creating and being a part of His own creation, nor without the idea of each one of us!) - only now the Son would also be Savior (but God always knew that by making us free, sin would come; and yet it was somehow more glorious for Him that sin would come and mercy would be given). Knowing all this, God still created us, still fell in love with the idea of each one of us.

And still, He gives us life, allows us to offend Him and to fail, and still He continues to love us - His mercy is infinite and His love is unwearied. This is stupefying - that EVEN THOUGH we are selfish and sinful and stubborn, He loves us.

But after all, love is like that - love is patient and understanding and forgiving. Even a deep human love (which is only a reflection of Divine Love) can overlook a great deal, and forgive 70 x 7 times, so we can almost comprehend how God can love us in spite of us. At least, we can accept this probability by extrapolating from the little we know of love.

But we often fail to see beyond our pathetic capacity to love; we often think that God's love is little better than ours. But of course, it is INFINITELY better.

Yes, God's mercy allows for our weakness (though I confess that at times I mistake this for a kind of grudging tolerance) and He constantly forgives us. He never rejects us, He guards our every step, He continuously sheds His light for us and invites us to something better. Yes, He even desires to BE WITH US, to DWELL WITHIN US, to give us every good thing and make us happy.

But this is still too restricted.

God's love for us is so great that WE can really bring Him JOY. Of course. He loves us and love finds joy in its beloved. But this did not really penetrate, or I did not penetrate those words until now. We can bring God joy - His delight is to be with us. We try to be "pleasing in His sight," but do we realize that we can really bring God JOY?!

I have said many times that an amazing threshold is crossed when we see at last and acknowledge with some humility the utterly stupefying fact that we are loved by Absolute Meaning. When we apprehend that GOD LOVES US, we are changed.

But I have found an even more utterly stupefying fact, and another threshold has been crossed: I can bring God JOY. God allows us to be His JOY.

I have perhaps lost you during this rambling post, and I am finding it difficult to find words to express this thought well. But it seemed rich enough to share nonetheless. I leave it to grace to persuade you (in a far more eloquent way than here) that God's love is utterly stupefying, no matter what facet of it we are blessed to see....