The Lord is good to everyone and everything; God’s compassion extends to all his handiwork! All that you have made gives thanks to you, Lord; all your faithful ones bless you! — Psalm 145:9-10
One of the most endearing memories I have of our daughter Emma is when she was around four years old. For a while, when I’d come home in the afternoon, she would greet me with, “Play game wif me daddy?” “Sure, what would you like to play?” “You be da king and I be da princess, and here’s what we gonna do…” After a couple of days of this I responded, “Now wait. If I’m the king, don’t I get to say what game we play?” She thought about this for a moment, then came back with, “You be da king and I be da queen…and here’s what we gonna do…”
Right then and there I discovered that for the rest of my life I’d be playing catch-up with her. And that’s OK.
But imagine. God comes home after work, and we greet our Parent with, “You be da king…” What would it mean for us to say that? Psalm 145, the only one with “praise” in the title, explains. Our king isn’t interested in a power play. Our king is vitally interested in the care and well-being of every bit of creation, “all that you have made.”
We honor our King by letting that sink in. God created us out of nothing, gave us everything, and is overjoyed seeing us living out our days in wonder and awe, just like that little four-year-old girl was doing.
Since that’s who our Creator really is, how can we not “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your being, and all your strength”? (Deuteronomy 6:5)
Good one.