My Dad loved to tease me as a kid.
The one thing that would really set me off is when he started taunting me with "Let's go by Arthur a Barney Doll!"
As an adolescent, I wanted as little to do as possible the perennially optimistic dinosaur with teeth guards for a smile.
Yet today, what my Dad meant for bad, my heavenly Father has turned to good.
I can imagine crafting a sermon based on the Barney character.
First of all, Barney reminds me of God the Father, big and always there, as old as the dinosaurs, and more.
Barney reminds me of Jesus Christ, clothed in purple majesty, purple like the color of wine, which represents the new and everlasting covenant cut through Him on our behalf.
And the fuzzy dinosaur is like the Holy Spirit, the ever-present reminder of the eternal favor, represented by a perfect and forever smile, accompanied by a warm embrace offered to us by the open arms of the plush dinosaur.
Even Barney's song is like the Gospel:
"I love you!
You love me!
We're a Happy Family."
We love because God first loved us (1 John 4: 19).
He so loved the world, including you and me, that He sent His only Begotten Son, that by believing on Him, we would not perish in our sins, but receive His everlasting life (John 3: 16)
Because we believe on Him, on His love — sending His Son to die in our place for our sins (1 John 4:10), we receive His Spirit, which spreads forth in our hearts the love of God (Romans 5: 5) that we may in turn walk in His love (Ephesians 5: 8) and love others:
"A new commandment I
give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love
one another." (John 13: 34)
Jesus later affirms this later, emphasizing that it is His love for us which empowers us to love:
"As the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
"If ye keep my
commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his love."
(John 15: 9-10)
It's important that we connect this passage with the First Epistle of John. We do not earn God's love by keeping His commandment. We keep His commandments as a result of believing on His love!
Just like Barney, God loves us first. Just as Barney "hopes" that we love Him, in Christ hope does not disappoint, as the Spirit of God releases in us and through us His Father's love.
The more we believe and feed on God's love, the greater our joy, that we may smile in the face of everything, just like Barney the Dinosaur.