Delight

(Mountains Part 2) Once I wasn’t much of a bird person. It started with a bat getting into my grandmother’s house when I was spending the night as an eight-year-old. Years later my cat brought a bird into the house and let it go. But not long ago I began to take notice of their antics, their calls to one another, their varied sizes and colorations and I began to warm up – a little.

We don’t have chickadees where I live, but they are the cutest. I had never seen one with my own eyes until this mountain trip. For several mornings in a row right after sunrise, something would butt up against the bottom of the sliding glass door, over and over. Inspecting, I saw it was a bird and dismissed it. When I went for a downhill, uphill walk to work off some energy, there was that little guy hopping up and down a few steps ahead of me. All puffy fat and seemingly delighted to have a walking companion.

As crazy busy humans we don’t take enough time to see the glory God puts around us. I’ve come to realize all this glory, be it sunrises or hopping birds, are for our joy and delight. God delights in us delighting in the gifts He puts in our path.

One of my true joys in the mountains are fireflies. I’ve often sat outside for a couple hours just to watch the on off, on off yellow-green lights sailing past, making bushes light up, dancing the night away. On this trip I made sure to go out to watch them just before I went to bed – humbled by something God knew I would find pure joy in.

“Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 NIV) This verse isn’t about our wants or needs, though many want it to be so. When we surrender heart, mind, and soul to the Lord, there we find what our heart desires most: His presence, His creation, His salvation, His promises, His mercy, His grace.

I’m home now, no chickadees, no fireflies. Sigh. Oh, how quickly we forget to rejoice in where God has put us. What of the thunderstorm so loud yesterday it shook the house? Of the deep puddles it left where polliwogs emerge? What of the wildflower seeds that had barely poked their heads up before I left on my trip and were blooming bright colors upon my return?

This life is hard. Days will sometimes break our hearts. People will anger us. We will let others down. We dwell on what ifs and entertain regrets. Our Jesus knows this. He was brokenhearted when He dwelled here. But He came just the same…to make a way. A way that peeks out at us now and then as we journey through our earth time. Laughter of a child, hug of a friend. Mockingbirds in love with the car mirror, waves lapping on the shore.

Yet the way everlasting is where Jesus points us. He is our way, our truth, and our life. As David reminds us: “He brought me out into a spacious place; He rescued me because He delighted in me.” (Psalm 18:19 NIV) This is truly a wonder. God delights in me, in you? Yes, enough to secure a future where we will rest in His love with no more hard days and where fireflies dance through the night.