Wake up beloved – Kirstie Le Lievre
I love the beautiful father to son moment in Matthew 3.17. As a new parent, I hope and pray to mirror this into my own family. Jesus is being baptised and God makes a powerful declaration at this moment. Jesus appears from the water, the heavens open in splendour and God announces his delight in Jesus, proclaiming “This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
When I look at my son Myles, I am reminded about how God feels about me. I am beloved, simply because I am God’s. Myles is beloved, simply because he was born my son.
Whose we are changes everything.
The heart-swell of love, delight and pride I feel when I look at my boy is only a toe-dip into the ocean of perfect love that God, the author of life and our creator feels towards all of us, all people, his children.
Back to the baptism in Matthew 3 and God’s “proud parent” declaration over his perfect son. There is so much to be pleased about in the life of Jesus. So much so, that the words “well pleased” feel incredibly modest!
In the accounts of Jesus’ life in the Bible, we recall the faithful son, brother and friend, the miracle worker, healer, bringer of justice and redeemer of lives that society had long given up on. Finally, Jesus’ profound choice to offer his life as the perfect ransom to secure salvation for all of us. No wonder God felt delighted, knowing full well how Jesus’ story would play out.
Yet, what amazes me about Jesus’ baptism is that God declares his love and his delight in Jesus first, before any big achievements, before his public life of ministry begins. Jesus heads out into the world marked first by God’s big love; secure, blessed and cherished by his father.
No performance is necessary to earn my love. Simple being who you are is enough, God says.
Being loved by God means that you and I, as his kids, can rest secure. Augustine said it so beautifully, when he remarked “My soul is restless until it rests in you, O God.”
As I return to care for the boy I call my “little love”, I know that in the highs and lows, the laughs and spills, messy clothing, midnight and dawn moments, God has got me. I’m not forgotten, never overlooked. I am secure and beloved because I am God’s girl. Now I am ready to serve the world of my home and beyond, so that they can experience God’s big love too.