Precious in God's Sight

The word "precious" conjures up very warm images in my mind. I think of a newborn baby, and the people who look upon this little miracle saying, "precious." It is so fitting to hear a family member speak of a loved one as being "precious" to them. It is a word filled with meaning, but it shows someone or something that is close to our heart and very valuable to us. I believe that is why the psalmist used this word to describe the death of godly believers. (Psalm 116:15) The key is that it is God who calls the death of His godly ones precious. We need to stop and think about why God would feel that way when a believer dies.

Most of the time, we think of death as being a bad thing, when it is not. Yes, we miss the person who has died, because we can't enjoy their presence and love any more. When we have a loved one who dies and that person is a Christian, we should have a positive view of their death. It was simply their departure from this world of sin to be in the presence of the Lord in the sinless place of heaven. What could be better than that? Well, one detail makes it even more wonderful. That detail is the fact that God, the Father, is waiting for His child to come home for eternity with Him. This reality is precious to the Lord, because then He gets to enjoy the physical presence of His child forever. That makes God smile. He loves to be close to us and to see His children fully blessed. That is why the death of His godly ones is so precious to the Lord, and why it should be so precious to us, too.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read Psalms 118 and 119:1-64.