Ephesians 1:4-6 Holman Christian Standard Bible

“For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will, to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved.”

One of my favorite things about being a mother is seeing my children’s imaginations soar. It was not unusual for me to wander about our home, picking up messes, when I overheard one of our kiddos playing independently. I heard them making up an entire conversation between dolls, action figures, dinosaurs, or even Lego people. It always stops me in my tracks and brings a smile to my face. I am delighted with this!

Imagination is often so easy when we are young, yet when we grow older, we struggle to use our imaginations for good. If you are anything like me, your imagination likes a good game of “what-if” – where you play out every bad situation that could happen in just a few minutes of silence. When you do have a creative thought, you smash it with “Oh, I could never do that!”

Needless to say, I think that’s why I enjoy watching my children play so much. It’s a beautiful and innocent thing. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING is possible in their worlds. It makes me think about God stopping to take delight in us. Scripture tells us that we are “adopted through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5). Accepting Jesus means that we choose to acknowledge that we are sinful and broken, living in a sinful and broken world; we repent of our sinfulness, and accept and believe that Jesus died, but is now our risen Savior, defeating death once and for all.

When we accept Jesus, we become God’s children through this adoption that Ephesians 1:5 mentions. Imagine God, our Heavenly Father, delighting in us. Delighting in those creative ideas that we squash so quickly. Maybe this is a hard concept for you because you didn’t have a loving father growing up. Maybe he was absent, so you assume that God doesn’t really care about your life. Maybe your dad was angry, so you associate God as angry. Maybe you had a good upbringing, but culture has told you that you aren’t enough; that you are not worthy. Or maybe it was a relationship that went south quickly, and now your version of love is slightly skewed.

Wherever you are, it’s important to know that we cannot press our versions of what an earthly father or fatherly love is onto our Heavenly Father. We can’t take what culture tells us and use that as a lens for how God sees us. And lastly, we cannot take our versions of circumstantial love and push them on God. Hebrews 13:8 (NLT) reads, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” God doesn’t change. His love isn’t circumstantial. It’s forever through His son, Jesus.

The love that God has for us is defined by John 3:16 (HCSB), “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” That is a Truth worth delighting in. In that, God says we are worthy; worthy to be loved; worthy to be saved; worthy to die for. 

My friend, whatever view you have of God, I want to challenge you this week to just imagine Him as the loving, humble, gentle Father that He is– a Father who cares deeply for His children. He’s a Father who sent His One and Only Son to die so that we could in turn become a true son or daughter of Him for eternity. I am praying that we can see that clearly this week, and that we, too, can take some time this week to “delight in the Lord” (Psalm 37:4). Have a great rest of the weekend!