“When he fixed the foundations of the earth,
then I was beside him as a little child;
I was his delight day by day,
playing before him all the while,
playing over the whole of his earth,
and my delight was in the children of men.”
(Proverbs 8:29b-31)
The whole world has been born from the delight that the Father has in his beloved Son. We have been created from the “divine playfulness” shared by the Father and the Son for all eternity. In the depths of the life of the Trinity, the Son plays unceasingly in his Father’s presence, rejoicing to be loved by the Father, and the Father plays with the Son, rejoicing in loving and being loved by the Son. The Spirit himself, the bond of love between the Father and the Son, is the very playfulness and delight that they share. He is the “oil of gladness” that ever flows at the heart of the divine life.
The entire creation is but an overflow of the abundant fullness of this divine life and love, of this eternal playfulness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As the Father delights in his Son, so he fashions creation after the image of his Beloved, as manifesting his beauty and his childlike dependency. He delights in the image of his Son present in creation, and especially in the human person, who in his or her unique mystery reveals the Son in a special and unrepeatable way. The Son, for his part, rejoices to see the beauty of creation, delighting in it as he has been delighted in by the Father, and loving it as he has been loved. “I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited earth, and my delight was in the children of men.” As the Son says in the Gospel of John: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.”
Each one of us has been created, freely and deliberately, from the intimacy that is shared by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have been created from the delight that the Father has in his Son, and the Son in the Father. We have been born from the “womb” of their divine playfulness, from the bosom of their eternal repose. God’s very creative activity is but an expression of this eternal play, and his work in the world is simply a manifestation of his divine repose. In other words, for God, playfulness and work are one, and rest and activity are a single mystery.
To rejoice in one another is the very life of the divine Persons, and they accept one another unreservedly, giving themselves in joy and gladness to each other. Because of this complete mutual surrender, their life is always consummated in perfect intimacy, in the communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, in which they live wholly with and in one another, in complete knowledge, love, and the tenderest embrace.
Each one of us, a unique and unrepeatable child of God, has been created to share in this Mystery. I have been made and destined to experience and to live in the divine playfulness, in eternal restfulness in the arms of Love. This is the deepest and most expansive Mystery, the Reality in which all else finds its place and its full blossoming…for this is God’s deepest desire, that for which he thirsts as he gazes upon me lovingly.
He delights in me as he delights in his beloved Son, and indeed delights in me in a unique way, unlike any other person in the whole of creation. Yes, this very gaze of the Father reveals to me who I truly am, as my life flows as a gift unceasingly from his loving hands, to be received in every moment in gratitude and trust. I am known by him fully, loved by him freely, and cherished in the beauty and mystery that is uniquely my own. When I look into his gaze upon me, then I know who I am—who I am for him who is Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Love.
Yes, enveloped in this loving gaze of the Father, I am set free, in belovedness, to live my life in relaxation, playfulness, and peace. I do not need to grasp, to control, to foresee, in a burdensome and mature “responsibility.” Nor do I need to seek to compensate for my deep insecurity by seeking love and refuge outside of God. No, I need only abide in the Father’s love, enveloped in the tenderness of the Spirit and the Son, and to gratefully receive each moment as God gives it to me, living according to its inner truth. This is not a heavy task weighing on my shoulders, for when God entrusts anything to me, he is the One who remains in control—he who is active ceaselessly in me and in the world, from the heart of his divine playfulness and repose. He seeks only to incorporate me, through all the concreteness of my life within his Love, into his own eternal playfulness and creativity…a movement which is enveloped, and gives way, to that perfect rest in the arms of the One who is perfect Love, Intimacy, and Joy.