The Happiness of God
Four voices across church history reveal the joy at the center of the Trinity
In the fall of 2007, I prayed a simple prayer:
“God, I want to be happy.”
I didn’t realize it right away, but that prayer wildly redirected the course of my life. In the years that followed, I began to encounter the love of Jesus in ways that changed how I saw everything—including God Himself.
What I discovered surprised me: at the center of the universe is not a reluctant or distant God, but a deeply joyful one. That discovery eventually led me to write The Happy Trinity, and along the way I found some remarkable companions across church history who saw the same thing.
Recently I reflected on four of these “friends”—voices from different centuries who all glimpsed the same radiant truth about God’s happiness. Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to trace the thread between them. The result was too good not to share. Cheers. 🍻
This is a profound convergence. What St. John of the Cross, St. Julian of Norwich, Jonathan Edwards, and John Piper all saw—across centuries—is that God is infinitely happy within Himself, and creation and salvation flow from that happiness, not from deficiency but from overflow.
Let’s trace the thread through each of them.
1. St. John of the Cross — The soul enters the Trinity’s living joy
From Living Flame of Love, Stanza 3, Commentary:
“The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit dwell within the soul… and the soul knows by experience the divine Persons within itself.”
And most strikingly:
“The soul loves God with the very love with which the Father loves the Son.”
For John of the Cross, the Trinity is not static—it is living love, actively shared. The soul is drawn into the same delight the Father has in the Son.
God’s inner life is not solemn isolation—but radiant, shared joy.
2. St. Julian of Norwich — God’s joy in loving us
Julian takes this even further by emphasizing that God Himself experiences joy in loving.
From Revelations of Divine Love:
“The Lord showed me… that He is to us everything that is good and comfortable… He is our clothing, who wraps and enfolds us for love.”
And most directly:
“For He rejoices that He is our Father, and He rejoices that He is our Mother, and He rejoices that He is our true Spouse and our soul is His beloved.”
Julian explicitly says God rejoices.
Not reluctantly loves.
Rejoices.
She even writes:
“The blessed Trinity enjoys endless delight in the work of our salvation.”
God enjoys saving you.
This is staggering.
3. Jonathan Edwards — God is infinitely happy within the Trinity
Jonathan Edwards wrote an extraordinary essay titled “An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity”, where he describes the Trinity in terms of infinite happiness and delight.
Here is the key passage:
“The Father delights in the Son, and the Son delights in the Father; and the Holy Spirit is the delight itself.”
He goes even further:
“God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself.”
This is central.
God is not waiting to become happy.
God is happiness itself.
Edwards explains:
The Father beholds His own perfect image in the Son
The Son beholds the Father
The Holy Spirit is the love and delight flowing between them
God lives in an eternal act of knowing and enjoying.
4. John Piper — God’s happiness is foundational to everything
In “The Pleasures of God”, Piper builds directly on Edwards and Scripture.
He writes:
“God is infinitely happy in the fellowship of the Trinity.”
And:
“From all eternity, God has beheld His own beauty in the face of His Son and delighted in Him with infinite joy.”
This is crucial.
God did not create because He was lonely.
God created because He was full.
Piper says:
“The happiness of God is the foundation of all His works.”
Creation is overflow.
Salvation is overflow.
Love is overflow.
5. Edwards’ most famous summary: God’s happiness is self-sufficient
Jonathan Edwards writes:
“God has no need of any creature… He is infinitely blessed in Himself.”
This means:
God did not create to fill a hole.
God created to share His joy.
6. The shared vision across all four of them
They all describe the same reality:
Within the Trinity:
The Father delights in the Son
The Son delights in the Father
The Spirit is the living joy between them
God is infinitely alive.
Infinitely delighted.
Infinitely happy.
Not becoming joyful.
Eternally joyful.
7. And the most shocking part: we are invited into it!
Jesus says in John 17:13:
“That they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.”
Not a different joy.
His joy.
The same joy the Son has in the Father.
This is exactly what:
St. John of the Cross calls participation
Julian calls God’s delight in loving
Edwards calls God’s infinite happiness
Piper calls the pleasures of God
8. Edwards’ most breathtaking conclusion
From his Trinity essay:
“The happiness of God consists in the enjoyment of Himself.”
And salvation is being brought into that enjoyment.
Not merely forgiven.
Welcomed into divine joy.
