Because He's So Happy!
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Faith on Tuesday, June 30, 2009 12:00 PM
My parents taught me that “Mommy loves you, and Daddy loves you, but Jesus loves you best of all.” I tell Camilla the same thing.
We also talk about how it is good to love Jesus, and why: because it makes him happy.
Even basic theology is often too complex for a two-year-old, and in this case my daughter has gotten mixed up.
“I love Jesus!” she’ll chirpily declare. “Because he’s so happy!”
But it occurred to me the other day that Camilla’s not in theological error. In fact, she might be getting more to the crux of the matter than I am!
I often think of a pious life as something that I’m required to give to God. As if the prayers and good works that I try to offer on a daily basis are the vital part of my relationship with him.
Setting aside the truth that I can do nothing good except by his grace, the way I often approach the task of living the Christian life is just plain wrong.
God asks me to offer him my thoughts and my actions not because they are ends in themselves, but because they are the means to an end. Because as I allow him to take up more space in my daily life, I am transformed so that I can participate more fully in his divine life.
It is not my piety that is the point. It is the degree to which I allow Christ to inhabit my heart and my mind that is the point.
I am called to seek God not because my worship adds anything to him, but because he has created me to be transformed in his likeness. Not foremost so that I may give him joy - he is already perfect Joy - but so that I may receive his joy.
I love him, in other words, because he’s so happy. My toddler got it right after all.
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