The Best Birthday Present - Ever.

Sometimes I wonder whether people only wish you well because they're in the same caregroup or because they genuinely enjoy you. No one wants to be loved out of a sense of duty, but to be loved because their presence is really enjoyed. But every birthday, I feel a nervousness in my stomach. It feels like waiting for the results of an annual opinion poll, or more precisely, an appraisal.

Yet I know my true appraisal comes from God Himself. Still, my heart does tend to feel anxious, because I know... isn't this a natural human thing? Just speaking. If you don't feel it, haha... then I guess good for you! ;) But if you do, welcome friend to the human race. :)

Thank God He doesn't love us only because He's God. Not even because He's naturally loving. Not even because He's Love. Not because He has a sense of obligation or compelled by His own character - as if He had anything to prove. But because He really takes delight in us.

"In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." Because He finds pleasure in doing so. Because He WANTS to.

You know, there was this Singaporean-born journalist who asked his grandfather who had migrated from China to Singapore. He asked him, "Grandpa, seeing that you came from China, do you feel more Singaporean or more Chinese?" His grandpa snorted. "Of course, Singaporean. I chose to come and stay here."

In the same way, I think we really are God's children - children not by a natural process or an inevitable "pray-the-sinner's-prayer-and-you'll-be-automatically-a-child-of-God" mechanistic ritual, but because God chose to adopt us. We are His children thrice-over: children by creation (of the Adamic Convenant), children by election (of the Abrahamic Covenant), and children by adoption (of the New Covenant).

A God who takes delight, pleasure and WANTS us to be born. No matter how high or low your IQ, Now, how is that not the Best Birthday Present - Ever?

:)