Nessie, the wonder dog, with a nose as keen as Sherlock’s Toby, has introduced a new element into many mornings. One gets up, always a mixed blessing, walks out into the neighborhood, down to the dog park, always suspiciously green, and there she receives the command she eagerly awaits. “Go poop in the grass.”
And she joyfully does.
“Good dog, Nessie.” I say as the black bag on my hand scoops up the remains of the dog food we paid for her to eat. She is so happy to have been good, so happy to walk back home, smelling at dead lizards, but obeying the command not to eat. She frolics (being careful not to jump on people!) and gambols, joyful that she has been a good dog. She has gone poops.
I realized this morning that much of the good done in life is simply our doing what people are designed to do. We eat, drink, fellowship, go poops in a sanitary way, and look to Heaven for a blessing. God delights to bless us knowing that the good we have done came from living in the good world he created, eating the food He made, and following the moral law written on our hearts and revealed in Scriptures. Of “His own,” we give him and then are delighted.
God is delighted. He takes joy over us and our happiness. Why? Not because our actions are praiseworthy in themselves, mostly they are what we should do if sane. Nessie soon would not be able to live in her house if she went poops whenever she wished. Instead, God enjoys the relationship, because God loves us.
This is good news.
We are not mere animals, naturally, so there is more to us than to Nessie, but not less. In fact, the “more” is where we so frequently complicate and so miss some of the good in our lives. We live, breath, move, have our being in God and so can be delighted and be found delightful! We can add nothing to God, but we can give God pleasure and that is a great and wonderful gift from God to us. He delights in us and the good we do.
If God was keeping score, few of us do anything particularly praiseworthy. If the writings of the greatest saints and martyrs are to be believed, they saw that the rewards from God far outweighed any merit in action. Good actions are good, make no mistake, but our joy and the returned pleasure of the Heavenly Father are out of proportion to their moral goodness. That is right and right only if we love God and God loves us.
We are all tempted to inflate our credentials, ministry, life story. This might impress our neighbors, for a time, but not God. We breath and it is good. We stop and thank God who does not need our praise and feel good. The thankfulness is good for us, so God is delighted, blesses us, and we are happy. In any time, even pandemic time, we can rejoice in the Lord who rewards us for any good we do and has mercy on our many wrongs.
God is love.
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