Devotions: Devotional Archive
The Trumpet Game
by Gwen Smith
Today’s Truth
“The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)
Friend to Friend
The Worship Pastor from my home church has a precious little one-year old baby girl named Journey. He and his wife are teaching Journey ‘baby sign language.’ For the word ‘please,’ they have chosen to have her rub her chest. So, as Brad and Jamie teach Journey to say ‘please’…they demonstrate by rubbing their chest and saying ‘please.’ Simple enough.
Journey has a favorite toy that holds colorful rings – you know the one…with the yellow and white base that loosely resembles a trumpet? (C’mon…use your imagination!) So, being the fun parents that Brad and Jamie are, they recently started holding up the base of Journey’s favorite toy and mimicking a trumpet sound. This causes sweet little Journey to laugh and clap with delight. It has become a favorite game in their household. When Brad and Journey recently played the trumpet game, Journey excitedly grabbed the base of the toy and handed it back to him to do it again. Naturally, as he and Jaime are still teaching Journey the baby sign language, Brad encouraged her to say ‘please’ and reinforced the instruction by showing her the sign of rubbing his chest. To his surprise, Journey made her way over to him and started to rub his chest instead of her own! Did this please her daddy? You bet it did!
Even though Journey completely mixed up the signals, she was attempting to communicate with her daddy. Her daddy was filled with love and joy by her efforts…because she was his little girl and she came to him… not because she did or didn’t do something right.
What a tender picture of God’s love for us. Have you considered that perhaps God isn’t longing for us to come to Him with perfect, polished prayers that have big, fifty-cent words and flowery language? Have you thought about the pleasure that God experiences when we simply approach him…just as we are…warts and all…because of His love for us? He delights in our attention and in our flawed and scattered attempts to communicate with Him because we are His. Let’s turn our eyes toward Perfect Love right now…
Let’s pray
Heavenly Father, thanks for this reminder of Your love for me. Thanks for seeing me as precious and special. I’m amazed by Your love. I’m overwhelmed with thankfulness that You made a way for me to know You through Jesus Christ. Help me to come to You as I am each day…without pretenses, pride, or perfection, but simply with Your permission to just be me…because You love me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now it’s your turn
Read Zephaniah 3:17 again silently
Now read it again aloud
Now read it aloud three more times and insert your name after each ‘you’ –
“The LORD your God is with you (insert name here), He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you (name), He will quiet you (name) with His love, He will rejoice over you (name) with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17 (NIV)