Bountiful Gifts

Wonderful words from Delighting in the Trinity by Michael Reeves:

“The very nature of the Triune God is to be effusive (expressing feelings of gratitude, pleasure, or approval in an unrestrained or heartfelt manner), ebullient (cheerful and full of energy), and bountiful; the Father rejoices to have another beside Him, and He finds His very self in pouring out His love.  Creation is about the spreading, the diffusion, the outward explosion of that love…."

 

“He is then, the source of all that is good, and that means He is not the sort of God who would call people to Himself away from happiness in good things.  Goodness and happiness are to be found with Him, not apart from Him…

“And the bountiful nature of the triune Creator makes all the difference in how we view the creation…as it is, there is something gratuitous about creation, an unnecessary abundance of beauty, and through its blossoms ad pleasures we can revel in the sheer largesse of the Father.  In fact, said CS Lewis, even if our views of God prevent us from doing so, this is just what the animals do.  Writing to his friend Owen Barfield shortly after WWII, he remarked, “Talking of beast and birds, have you ever noticed this contrast: that when you read a scientific account of any animal’s life you get an impression of laborious, incessant, almost rational economic activity….but when you study any animal you know—what at once strikes you is their cheerful fatuity, the pointlessness of nearly everything they do.  Say what you like, Barfield, the world is sillier and better fun than they make out.”

 

“It makes all the difference:  is this world a desert of mere, grim survival—a workhouse for the gods—or is it the gift of the most kind and generous Father?

“And not only is God’s joyful, abundant, spreading goodness the very reason for creation; the love and goodness of the triune God is the source of all love and goodness.  John Owen wrote that the Father’s love for the Son is the fountain and prototype of all love….and all love in the creation was introduced from this fountain, to give a shadow and resemblance of it.  Indeed, in the triune God is the love behind all love, the life behind all life, the music behind all music, the beauty behind all beauty and the joy behind all joy.  In other words, in the triune God is a God we can heartily enjoy—and enjoy in and through His creation."

All photos I took in Alaska, from Seward to Denali--what a place to experience God's creative mind!