He is forever longing to smile upon us

​It's easy to forget God's gaze of joy directed at us.

It's easy to forget, that just as a parent waits to gaze joy into the eyes and heart of a newborn, God is always waiting to gaze into his children the same way.

We too often miss it, though; we too often fail to imagine God's gaze. While longing for and suffering the unmet gazes from one another, we overlook the gaze that is always there.

Always shining.

And like the prodigal son once discovered, God's gaze has no limitations. No conditions. Only that we show up and accept it.

God created us for the chance to gaze upon us. He never walks away from that chance, even after days and months and years of us walking away from our chance to receive it.

We too infrequently smile upon our own lives with joy. Why then, we ask, would God smile upon me?

Maybe it's time to change the order of things. Maybe it's time to first imagine just how frequently the God of heaven's gaze of joy is smiling upon us, and then ask, knowing that, how on earth could I not smile upon my own life with joy.

If you haven't imagined it lately, do so today. Imagine the joy of God smiling upon you as you walk into his presence. Because the question is not, will he be overwhelmed with joy when I show up.

The question is ALWAYS, will I show up?

So many of us need it more than ever, the knowing that we are worthy of a smile radiating nothing but joy in the seeing us. So many of us have longed for too long to receive joy for nothing but our mere presence.

It is there, I promise you. The one who created us to smile upon us never loses interest or hope in just one moment of us showing up to receive it.

His joyful smile.

So that we walk away knowing, it's a gaze that will never ever leave.