How Does Creation Demonstrate God’s Happiness?

How does creation demonstrate God’s happiness?

I am so happy I found my lost sheep. Let us celebrate!

Luke 15:6, GNT

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” I take this to mean that God was delighted with his work. When he looked at it, it gave him pleasure. He was pleased and happy with his creative effort. JOHN PIPER

I’VE NEVER BEEN to Iguazú Falls, on the border of Brazil and Argentina. But I’ve watched astounding videos that offer a glimpse of its wonders.

The falls are 1.7 miles across, with many small islands dividing the torrent of water into separate cataracts and waterfalls. Depending on the water level, there are between 150 and 300 of these falls, varying from about 200 to 270 feet high. I’ve witnessed the power of Niagara Falls firsthand, but the volume of the cascading waters of Iguazú Falls can be up to twenty times greater. (Upon visiting Iguazú Falls, Eleanor Roosevelt reportedly exclaimed, “Poor Niagara!”^a)

For those who believe in God, wonders like these are compelling evidence of the one who takes delight in his creation.

If we are going to fully trust God, it’s vital that we believe in a happy God who cares deeply for our welfare and is active in creation and redemption.

A. W. Tozer depicted the happiness of God as seen in his creation:

God is not only pleased with Himself, delighted with His own perfection and happy in His work of creating and redeeming, but He is also enthusiastic. There is an enthusiasm in the Godhead, and there is enthusiasm in creation. . . . This infinite God is enjoying Himself. Somebody is having a good time in heaven and earth and sea and sky. Somebody is painting the sky. Somebody is making trees to grow . . . causing the ice to melt . . . and the fish to swim and the birds to sing. . . . Somebody’s running the universe.^b

Is God happy about the animals he has made? Take a look at this: “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane? . . . He paws in the valley and exults in his strength. . . . He laughs at fear and is not dismayed. . . . With fierceness and rage he swallows the ground; he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet. When the trumpet sounds, he says ‘Aha!’” (Job 39:19, 21-22, 24-25).

Isn’t God’s utter delight in horses obvious? Since he finds pleasure and happiness in animals, we shouldn’t feel “unspiritual” when we do. To animal-loving unbelievers, we can say, “I believe in a God who not only made those animals but also delights in them!”

Does God have a sense of humor? He created the giraffe, the camel, the hippopotamus, and the duck-billed platypus. If you need more proof, look online at photos of animals such as the proboscis monkey, the star-nosed mole, the pink fairy armadillo, the Dumbo octopus, the sucker-footed bat, the blobfish, or my personal favorite, the axolotl.^c I’ve done this several times with my grandsons, enjoying shrieking laughter and great conversations about God’s happiness and sense of humor.

Had we been able to watch God spin the galaxies into existence, fashion this planet, and make animals and the first humans (perhaps one day we’ll go back and see all this), we’d surely have seen his happiness and the pleasures he intended for us.

Our view of God’s happiness with and in his creation will inevitably determine our view of the gospel’s depth and breadth. The implications are far reaching. If God is happy only with limited aspects of his creative work and hostile or indifferent to most of it, including the culture developed by his image bearers, then there’s far less left to bring him glory. But suppose he still loves his fallen creation and desires not to destroy it but to redeem it so that he and we might forever take delight in it!

Charles Spurgeon said,

Let a man truly know the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he will be a happy man! And the deeper he drinks into the spirit of Christ, the more happy will he become! That religion which teaches misery to be a duty is false upon the very face of it, for God, when He made the world, studied the happiness of His creatures. You cannot help thinking, as you see everything around you, that God has diligently, with the most strict attention, sought ways of pleasing man. He has not just given us our absolute necessities, He has given us more—not simply the useful, but even the ornamental! The flowers . . . the stars . . . the hill and the valley—all these things were intended not merely because we needed them, but because God would show us how He loved us and how anxious He was that we should be happy!

Now, it is not likely that the God who made a happy world would send a miserable salvation! He who is a happy Creator will be a happy Redeemer!^d

Lord Jesus, you are the Word—you spun the galaxies into being and spoke life into your creation. What joy we feel when we see your handiwork and realize that you made it not just to keep it to yourself but to share it with us. I can imagine you laughing out loud as you formed some of this world’s crazy-looking creatures. Some of them, in the deepest part of the oceans and perhaps in other worlds, haven’t even been discovered yet. Thank you for the glorious variety of gifts you’ve so kindly entrusted to us. And thank you that in the ages to come you won’t cease to be a Creator of what’s new and wonderful!