When I was young, my siblings and I each had chores. Mine was to clean the bathroom. Once a week, I transformed our scuzzy bathroom into sweet smelling cleanliness again. At least that is how I remember it. I probably was not quite as effective in my work as I thought I was at age 9, but I really worked hard at this chore. I would always get my mother to come inspect when I was done. I cannot exactly describe my mother’s approval, but it consisted of an exclamation and a kiss that to me was priceless. I loved that I brought my mother joy by the job I had done. I felt her approval and enjoyment of me so deeply. I have come to realize that was a gift my mother gave me.
During the Advent season, we thought it would be helpful to meditate on the blessing of Jesus’ gift to us as he took on human flesh to serve all of humanity. For the next four weeks leading up to Christmas, we will be posting on various Advent themes that have been encouraging to us recently. There are so many blessings as a result of Jesus’s incarnation. Lately, I have been meditating on what one of my friends, Jon Hinkson**, calls the “Benediction.”
Jon wrote:
“We long to hear affirmation spoken over us. ‘Benediction’ means the good word, the blessing. It’s what we all want in some form. Every one of us longs to hear the words spoken over us: ‘you are acceptable, great, wonderful.’ We might even say we are desperate for it. …[The Bible] says we were made for it (Genesis 1) and that our Creator spoke it over us: ‘good, good, very good!’ This favor and delight of the Creator filled and satisfied our souls. But then the Bible tells us that we lost His benediction through our distrust and treachery (Genesis 3) and in its place received His malediction: ‘Depart from Me.’ And ever since that terrible loss we have been desperate to replace it. It is as if there is a gaping hole at the center of our souls we incessantly seek to fill. But if the bad news is that we have managed to lose it, and indeed are under His malediction, the good news is that we may gain it back. And this by a most extraordinary means.”
When Jesus was baptized at the beginning of his ministry, he had the benediction of his Father – “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” On the cross, he took the malediction that was due to us. In a mysterious and cosmic exchange, we now can receive the benediction given to Jesus. We can be children pleasing to God by a gift of grace.
Life is a hard journey, a mixture of joy and labor and suffering. It makes all the difference in the world to labor forward in life, knowing that God delights in me rather than frowns upon me. As his beloved child, I strive to obey and I strive to live a life which pleases him. I am sure I still fall far short. Sometimes I know it and sometimes I don’t. But God is gracious to his children. He corrects us graciously. As I read his Word, I live in light of his steadfast love, shown in Jesus gift on the cross, and I continue to press forward in hope.
Some of us more easily grasp that God loves us, perhaps because we have a parent, a sibling, a friend, a mentor or other relationship that blessed us with the kind of gracious approval or benediction like my mother. Give God thanks for such a blessing. Some of us struggle to grasp that God loves us, even though we know the good news of what Jesus accomplished in his first coming. We might at times see obedience as a fearful duty, with an uncertain outcome. Will He yell at me when I come to face him or will I be pleasantly surprised that he thought I did an okay job? Ask God to impress his compassionate Word upon your heart so that you believe it more and more day by day. For all of us, I think of Paul’s words in Colossians 3:23-24, “Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people, knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ.” What a benediction it is to serve the Lord who has already fixed his steadfast love upon us.
**Jon Hinkson is a senior research fellow of the Rivendell Institute and director of spiritual formation for graduate students at Yale University. He is part of the Princeton Christian Fellowship (formerly PEF) alumni family.