When I challenge myself to name things that delight me, it’s pretty easy to come up with a list. The way my dog greets me at the door, all tail-wagging, body-shaking joy. The summer loveliness of a deep blue hydrangea. A handwritten Mother’s Day card from one of my sons. A Youtube video of baby goats leaping with sprightly grace.

There’s a difference, I think, between something that makes me happy and something that delights me. “Delight” is stronger; I reserve it for something that lightens my spirit. Delight feels like a sudden shot of optimism and joy. It’s when something makes my soul say, “Yippee!”

That’s why it made me pause when I saw today’s Psalm: “The Lord takes delight in his people” (Psalm 149:4).

That means the Lord takes delight in me. In you. In every single one of us.

I’ll admit that a part of me struggles to believe this. Maybe there’s bad theology from my past that gets in the way, holdover images of God as the enforcer, the policeman, the disappointed parent. Don’t I need to earn God’s love? Don’t I first need to fix all the things about me that need fixing?

I don’t. God takes delight in me, right now, just as I am.

And He takes delight in you, Sister. You lighten God’s heart. You make God say, “Yippee!”

So try this: Imagine looking at something that delights you, that delights you to the core. A kitten, a sunset, a smiling baby: you’ll know what it is.

Then see God looking at you, feeling the same thing. Let that be your prayer for the next twenty-four hours: God looking at you, just as you are, filled with delight at what He sees.

Try it. Stay with it. See what happens.

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