On a department in a company, 4 people worked together. There names was; "many", "somebody", "somebody else" and "nobody".

The team had received an important assignment and many thought that somebody should do it.

Somebody else could aslo do it, but nobody did.

Somebody got pissed because it was really the job of many.

Many now considered that somebody else should have started, but nobody understood that many actually should have had.

It ended up like this; many blamed somebody else, when in fact nobody could blame someone.

The LORD your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing - Zephaniah 3:17

I was at home one morning before work and it was snack time. I LOVE snack time! My wife Kristi brought the children one of the usual snacks, today was the cheese puffs. As I sat on the couch watching Joshua my 2 year old (then) enjoy the crispy snack I began to smile at the strangest thing. I could hear Joshua crunching away at his snack, really enjoying every bite. It sounded like Snoopy on Charlie Brown Christmas eating that big stack of bones – really. My smile was that of shear pleasure as I observed Joshua’s delight.

It made me think about how God delights, even sings over His children because of His great love for us. When we have joy, God has more joy. When we have pain, God has more pain. This is one of the characteristics of our heavenly Father. He models this behavior for us so that we might be more like Him and rejoice over our children, even sing over them.

Some of you may or may not know that i am a minister/worship leader. I would like to share a little story from time to time about what God shows me through my children. I hope this is uplifting and encouraging.

 Andrea and Joshua (2 of my Children) are a trip. It never fails. Whenever I break out a Little Debbie snack cake, not just any Little Debbie, but the little ones with the chocolate cakes held together by chocolate fudge icing covered by milk chocolate – that’s right, that’s the one. When they hear the sound of that plastic wrap crinkling…they know and they come running! They want a bite of the good stuff that dad has.

Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession. – James 1:17-18 NLT

I like that! “Whatever is good”, “whatever is perfect” comes from the Father! The Father has the good stuff – truth, love and hope. He wants us to have these things in abundance. I always have those Little Debbie in the fridge, they just taste better that way, so the crinkling plastic wrap is always the same – a chocolate covered Little Debbie. The children know what they are going to get – the best that I have to offer. Not much chance of that changing. Not much chance of my children being anything less than my prized possessions either. So we learn from God and about God that in the vastness of time and space, out of all creation, we are important to God and that He loves us enough to save the good stuff for us - Hope, life and love.