Did you know God is looking for a people in whom He can rejoice? In Isaiah 65:19 God says, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” He said this just after having challenged these very people, “Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing” (vs. 18).

Our God is a rejoicing God. He calls His people to rejoice in what He creates, with the promise that He will rejoice in those people. Who are these people? They are the very people to whom earlier He had said, “Comfort, O comfort My people…Here is your God” (Is. 40:1, 9).

Our God is an up-close-and-personal-God. He is not aloof and disinterested. When we are taken through the hard times of life He does not forsake us; He draws near. Even when we can’t see Him, He is present, “like a shepherd” (Is. 40:11). When we are broken and hurt, fractured and wounded “in His arms He will gather His lambs and carry them in His bosom” (Is. 40:11).

God is so much with us that we can join the prayer of old and pray, “O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Is. 65:8). God is with us in the everyday stuff of life--the good, the bad, and the ugly; and He is with us in grace to shape and form our lives in awesome ways we could never dream or imagine.

In the Advent season of waiting, longing, looking forward, and hoping, God Is With Us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us (see. Psalm 23:4). In the presence of powers that would seek our demise God invites us to a divine banquet. He is our shepherd anointing us with the oil of His Spirit so much so that our “cup overflows” (Ps. 23:5).