And just as he was coming up out of the water…a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
“To please God… to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness… to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. But so it is.” – C.S. Lewis
Most people have no trouble thinking that God could be mad at them. We are all to acquainted with caricatures of an angry God who is displeased with our sinfulness and screw-ups. It is odd then that the inverse is true: many people have a hard time believing that God can actually be pleased with us. Baptism is a symbol of how following Jesus changes the equation completely: God is pleased in us when we follow Christ. Today, spend some time reflecting on how God is pleased with you. Turn this pleasure into praise, for it is only by Christ’s redemption that we can rest in the pleasure and presence of God.