At the very beginning of his ministry Jesus arrived at the Jordan River in which he was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, who, at first, protested. He thought it should be the other way around. Nevertheless, John consented and baptized Jesus. As Jesus came out of the water, “a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:17)
Reflecting on this event, my first human reaction is: “Wow! Jesus hasn’t done anything yet as far as his ministry is concerned and God is well pleased with him. What gives?” Well, what gives is we realize and understand that God is pleased with each and every one of us because we are all God’s children, and no one, including Jesus, is more important and more loved than another. That may sound heretical, but I believe it is true. God is truly pleased that we are God’s children, no exceptions.
What is also true is that when we come to the end of our life and meet God in person in eternity, we hope that God greets us with “You are my beloved child. I have been well pleased how you have lived your life.”
Frightening, isn’t it? I don’t know about you, but when I think back on my life, I can honestly and humbly say that there is much for which I think God – and I – can be pleased. But there is also much for which I am not pleased in the least. My guess is that I am not alone with such thoughts. God is pleased with us most of the time but not all the time. That should concern us as, I assume, it concerns God.
Unlike Jesus we have never heard a voice from heaven telling us that God is pleased with us. On the other hand, we certainly don’t want to hear a voice telling us that God, at the moment, is not very pleased with us. Either way hearing a voice from God it would be very, very frightening. Thank God, we don’t.
But we do. We really do. We are children of God meaning that God lives in us whether we realize that or not. Because of that we are godly, of God, knowing right from wrong, knowing what we say and do is pleasing or not pleasing to God. We don’t need a voice from heaven to tell us this. We hear it inside our heart and our head. It won’t go away because it can’t go away even as we sometimes try to ignore it or silence it.
It would be wonderful, would it not, if somehow each morning as we awaken, we hear a voice saying, “You are my beloved child with whom I am well pleased”? Then, at the end of the day, as we lie in bed reflecting on the day that has passed, how we have lived our life, how we have used the gifts and talents with which God has blessed us, especially to help those who have been less blessed, we will honestly, humbly know that God could say to us, “My child, I have been well pleased with you today.” God could and would, but it is up to us to make that happen by the way we have lived the day that has passed.
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