Because they are the offspring whom the Lord has blessed.
Isaiah 61:9b
What recognizable mark does knowing God leave on us? Until fairly recently, virtually the only way someone would have known I belonged to Christ would have been if I'd told them. And I'm not sure it would have been great p.r. for Him if I had told them. Now I live in the Lord's blessing. My outward circumstances haven't changed in any dramatic way, so I'm not talking about material blessing. I'm talking about love. God has left His deep mark on me by simply loving me.
Have you ever noticed how a person who is loved extremely deeply by another person (particularly by a spouse) often has a glow of confidence? Their demeanor says, "Whatever else happens to me, I know this love will not be taken from me. I know that I am highly valued."
I'm no longer married, and the glow I've just described was never part of my experience. However, God has been crowning me with confidence in His own love, a love that truly can never be taken away from me.
In Ezekiel 16, there is a beautiful and sensual description of the love that God showered on Israel when He first established her as a nation. I love the first part of this description, but I always stop reading at the end of verse 14, before the love story turns sour because of the nation's self-focus and subsequent unfaithfulness. I sometimes say, "And the rest is not our story, Lord, because I have come back to You and intend to stay faithful to You." I fully acknowledge that I am flawed enough that I could betray this promise. I have no desire to betray this promise, but knowing that I could is one of the reasons I remain in daily, heart-to-heart fellowship with the Lord. No matter how much we love God, any one of us is only a breath away from returning to our world-centered focus if we begin to neglect meaningful time with Him.
No one grows more like someone -- even a close family member -- without spending meaningful time with that person. If I know someone only via e-mail or brief telephone calls, I probably don't know that person very well, even if we're related or were once best friends. We can't know God in theory. He calls us to intimacy. He calls us to allow Him to bathe us by His presence. He calls us to be with Him where He is, so that we may behold His glory.
Bless You, wonderful God, that it was never enough for You that we should know You in theory. You chose us to be so much more than distant e-mail acquaintances, writing You "here's what's going on in my life and here's what I'd like You to do for me" notes, rather than basking in and bathing in Your presence.
You are the source of life. Your presence marks us deeply with Your sweet image and Your sweet scent. I know that I am highly valued by You; yet let me drink in that truth until every ounce of me believes it, until my countenance so resembles Your own that all who see me will recognize that I am Yours.