The Joy of God's Love

R. A. Torrey writes in his book The Person and Work of The Holy Spirit about a father's love for his child. The example he gives is quite moving.

Some years ago there was a father in the state of Illinois, who had a child who had been deaf and dumb from her birth. It was a sad day in that home when they came to realize that that little child was deaf and would never hear and, as they thought, would never speak. The father heard of an institution in Jacksonville, Ill., where deaf children were taught to talk. He took this little child to the institution and put her in charge of the superintendent. After the child had been there some time, the superintendent wrote telling the father that he would better come and visit his child. A day was appointed and the child was told that her father was coming. As the hour approached, she sat up in the window, watching the gate for her father to pass through. The moment he entered the gate she saw him, ran down the stairs and ran out on the lawn, met him, looked up into his face and lifted up her hands and said, “Papa.” When that father heard the dumb lips of his child speak for the first time and frame that sweet word “Papa,” such a throb of joy passed through his heart that he literally fell to the ground and rolled upon the grass in ecstasy. But there is a Father who loves as no earthly father, who longs to have His children realize that they are children, and when we [pg 140] look up into His face and from a heart which the Holy Spirit has filled with a sense of sonship call Him “Abba” (papa), “Father,” no language can describe the joy of God.

It may be said, I think, the measure of joy in a relationship is the measure of love in the relationship especially in the parent's love for their children. Our greatest joy should be that God joys over us.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 1 John 3:1

The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you (Zephaniah 3:17)

but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8, ESV)