It was an innocent enough question, tossed out into the discussion in a small group, half for fun and half out of curiousity….until it was coming around the circle and it was my turn and the question was sticking in my throat: What does God like about you? Not the things you do but who you are, and that’s the problem right there when you know for sure that He loves you but you’ve never even considered that He may actually like you too. I choked out something that may have made sense, about the particular way He has made me, but all I could think of was how those same qualities are things people don’t like about me, so how could I imagine He would?

The question is still reverberating in me…What do You like about me, You who made the many-colored fishes in the deepest sea for Your eyes only, and the giraffe with the graceful neck and the ridiculous eyelashes, and the wombats and the wolverines, the lion king, and the little brown sparrow. Because if you made all of them, so varied and amazing in their differences down to the last detail, purely for Your enjoyment and ours, then You surely delight in all the different people You made too. What do you like about me?

These musings keep coming back to the starting place: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14) So if You made me just because You wanted me, then the details of who I am are all Your idea, Your craftsmanship. Not only loved, but delighted in….wonderful… and made on purpose. Granted, some of your creations are more humorous than noble, and some are downright ugly and strange, but even in them there must be something You enjoy, as they live in Your world and respond to You as Creator.

I wonder how life would change if we could learn not to define ourselves with the opinions of others, not spend so much time trying to be happy and significant, to do our best to measure up just to make it through this world in one piece. If we really had the deep sense that the reason we are here is to delight the heart of our Maker and respond to Him in pure devotion and thanksgiving. If we lived the way He made us… and just to make Him smile.

So what does God like about you?

…your heart of compassion for “the least of these”?
…your sense of humor?
…the way you can focus on a task and complete it well?
…that you love to cook for people and make them feel welcome?
…your willingness to help out wherever needed?
…your boldness to dream big?
…that you see and appreciate the beautiful things He has made?
….or?……..

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1)

“It’s all about You, Jesus,
And all this is for You,
For Your glory and Your fame,
It’s not about me,
As if You should do things my way;
You alone are God, and I surrender.” (Kari Jobe)