“Love takes pleasure at the flowering of truth”
I have this rose garden beside my porch, roses are one of my favorite things. In spring and summer you can immediately smell them when you go out my front door. This verse makes me picture one of my roses as it opens up over time.
I love roses because their flowering takes time, this allows an appreciation for the flower in all of its stages of development. Truth is just like that. God doesn’t rush us to all the truth at once. He has an appreciation for watching us unfold in all our stages of development. It’s beautiful in His eyes.
He doesn’t love our end product more than our process. The process is relationship. He brings everything we needed to grow, and His presence is just like the sun shining down. Love can delight in a God who unfolds truth to us one petal at a time because he knows that is all we can take. The Truth, especially about ourselves, can be hard to swallow. When we know we are loved, we can rejoice with the truth. “Love rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13 ESV, the MSG above). Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the unfolding of his word gives light and understanding. It discerns the heart. Most of the time I don’t even discern my own heart. I’m so thankful to have a God who appreciates the beauty of my heart and the time it takes to refine me.
When God reveals the truth to us to help us grow, it is never harsh and abrupt. It is gentle, swiftly accurate, but gentle. Responding to the truth revealed is our choice, God doesn’t force us. Below is one of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson. She had such a great way of painting pictures in the minds.
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant –
Success in circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The truth must dazzle gradually
or every man be blind –
Emily Dickinson
We are able to rejoice at the Truth because God never blinds us with it. He is gentle and He dazzle’s gradually, knowing exactly what our hearts can hold.
Father, let us not ever fear or hide from the Light you shine in our hearts to make us grow. Thank you for dazzling us gradually because you know our limitations. Thank you for loving us in our process as much as you will love us the day we step into heaven. Let us rejoice in your discipline as a celebration of your love.
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