"Marvellous and stately is the place where the Lord dwelleth, and therefore He willeth that we readily answer to (pay attention to) His gracious touching, more rejoicing in His whole love than sorrowing in our often fallings. For it is the most worship to Him of anything that we may do, that we live gladly and merrily, for His love.
Julian of Norwich (Ch. 81)
We want to worship and please Him. We want to honor and follow Him. And the thing that gives Him the most honor and praise, the most joy and pleases Him most, is to live happily because we know He loves us. Love is the all-important thing He wants us to focus on, relax in and rejoice in. He doesn't want us to pay attention to our failures and be sad. He wants us to pay attention to His loving embrace and be happy! He is always touching us with His love, turning our eyes to see His eyes that look on us with love. He is always drawing our attention to Love! We can think He is looking at our sins, wanting us to improve, focusing on behavior. But Christ is just focusing on loving us. He knows we are frail humans. He knows we make mistakes. And it doesn't matter. Isn't it wonderful that the place He chooses for His home is inside our hearts? His favorite place is inside of us, and He loves dwelling there. He loves being in us and is at home in us, even with all our faults, weaknesses and imperfections. Instead of saying He is too holy to be around us humans who have mistakes and sins, He is proud and delighted to dwell in us, with those mistakes and sins. In fact, the place where He dwell is holy and is called His temple, and thus we are holy and His temple, not because we always have perfect behavior, but because the perfect and holy One lives in us, and He loves living in us.
We don't have to be perfect. That is His job! For we are vessels that contain Life, the life of God! It is the Life that is to be perfect, and do all the right things, and live perfectly. and that is what Christ, the Life inside of us, will do and is doing! Our job is to relax, rest, and be happy because we are loved! We are not far from God or separated from God or too messed up to have God near us. God is in us, accepting us as we are. God is in us, seeing the beauty of our human person beyond all the mistakes. God is in us, happy to be with us. God is in us, loving us. God is in us, filling up all our empty places with His gentle presence. We are full of God. We are full of love. And that love is coming out without our effort. We can live gladly because we are loved. That is our job: to be loved!
"Do you not discern and understand that you....are God’s temple (His sanctuary), and that God’s Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you]?"
1 Corinthians 3:16 (AMPC)
"Nothing can stop God from loving us."
Romans 8:38 (EASY)
A Prayer: I thought I had to be perfect for You to be happy to be with me. But You showed me You are happy to be with me right now, as I am, with my imperfections. Thank You for that wonderful love and acceptance.