The strongest image was of Sophia running toward me with her arms thrown open wide, her head tilted back, and a big smile on her face. Every time she greets me that way, everything else seems to fade away. It doesn't matter how hard a day has been or what disappointments I have encountered, her joy overflows to me, washing the cares of the world away. I have been experiencing empathy without ever realizing it.
The insight into empathy came with an additional insight. As I thought about Sophia's joyous welcomes, I realized that God delights in me even more than Sophia does. In that realization, I felt the Lord's love for me in a very powerful, moving way. In that instant, I understood God's love more clearly.
The Psalmist says, "The LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hopes in his unfailing love" (Ps. 147:11). Jesus, instructing his disciples to abide in his teachings, said, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete" (John 15:11). The Lord delights in his people, and wants them to share in his joy. That is to say, he wants them to empathize with him, to feel his joy, to feel his sorrow. I pray for you what Paul prayed,
that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled the all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:16-19, ESV).May the Lord open your eyes to the vastness of his love for you, and may you walk in that love in obedient faith.
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