"I don't like you but I love you."
or perhaps
"Its a good thing I love you because sometimes I really don't like you."
I feel like it is most often used in the context of family. There are these people that we are "required" to love because of some social construct that our society defines that facilitates the continuation of our race so we have to "love" them even though they are people we would never choose to hang out with otherwise. It is fraught with a sense of obligation, robbing the relationship of any sense of intimacy and enjoyment. We benefit from the relationship sure but it seems more like a symbiotic partnership than an intimate relationship.
Do you ever think that God feels the same way about us?
We know that God loves us. He sent his Son to die for us to redeem us to himself. We hear about God's love all of the time. We love the love of God. We talk about it, we sing about it, we preach it, we pray it, we base everything on it.
But does God like us?
You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4 No longer will they call you Deserted,
or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah,
and your land Beulah;
for the Lord will take delight in you,
and your land will be married.
5 As a young man marries a young woman,
so will your Builder marry you;
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride,
so will your God rejoice over you.
Isaiah 62:3-5
Psychologists say that the single largest determining factor in human attraction is reciprocity. That means we are attracted most to people who are attracted to us back.
So we love God because he first loved us.
But we enjoy God because he rejoices over us. He delights in us. He promises this. This relationship is what we have to look forward to. If ever you wonder if heaven is going to be a place really worth fighting for, really worth suffering for, really worth sacrificing for, really worth dying for just think of this.
You know how good you feel when you walk in to a gathering and people's faces light up when you enter because they are glad to see you?
Imagine how you will feel when the God of the universe infinitely delights to have you in his presence and rejoices over you.
I don't care how desperately thirsty I am, that will quench it. And knowing that that is coming will hold me over enough to get me there.
