Is 65:17-21 / Jn 4:43-54
“For I create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight; I will rejoice in Jerusalem and exult in my people.”
Have you ever thought of God really being delighted in you? Yes, we know God is a God of love, but somehow that love is just beyond us. Somehow … it does not fit us. Unfortunately, that makes us make God a liar.
What? That’s right.
The Church is the New Jerusalem. And since it is, that means God has taken a delight in His Church — us.
We all know that doesn’t mean we get everything right all of the time. In fact, at times it’s all too easy to believe we will never get anything right.
But the simple promise of our God is that He has made all things new by the Blood of His Cross.
Now, we still hear the weeping and crying for the sorrow of our sins. But the promise of our God is that He has taken a delight in us and He does so precisely because of that weeping and crying.
“Here, O Lord, and have pity on me;
O Lord, be my helper.
You changed my mourning into dancing;
O Lord, my God, forever will I give you thanks.”
As this Lent continues, take your mourning before the Lord and ask for reconciliation, receive His love, and know the delight of the Lord.
Isaiah understood. So must we. Of all that is God, His main delight is to forgive. Remember the story of the Prodigal Son?
Give God something to rejoice in.
