day no. 16,685: the echoes of grace grow louder as they go

Psalm 89:1-4

I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.

Joy is easy to pass along. In fact, a tell tale marker of joy is the insatiable ambition to share it. You cannot love something without wanting others to love it. You cannot swell in appreciation without overflowing in admiration.

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him.” ― C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms

We are free and fervent solicitors of our truest loves. Whether it be a sports team, a book, a movie/TV series, a meme, an article, a favorite restaurant or recipe, a vacation spot, a sunset, etc... we cannot help but want to share it. We want to enjoy it and we want the enjoyment of watching others enjoy it.

Isaiah 9:7

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

If a father loves the Lord, he will desire for his children to love the Lord. If he sees his God as faithful, he will want His faithfulness to be proclaimed and observed by others. The man who loves the Lord has legacy in mind. He cannot help himself. His energy will be thrown into it. Though it be his duty, he won't need duty to remind him. His zeal will lead him.

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

A godly father cannot help but teach his sons to teach their sons to teach their sons the mercies of the Lord. The echoes of grace grow louder as they go. Entropy has no hold on its enthusiasm. In other words, grace does not run out of gas. 

John 1:16

For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace.