Simple Joy
Our daily lives are filled with simple joys...
A bird singing a sweet song even in the midst of winter's chill.
Blissful voices of children singing their favorite songs exuberantly and off key.
Naked baby feet beckoning to be kissed.
The embrace of the one who completes you.
Marveling at The Artist who paints the sky each morning and unrolls a carpet of stars at night just for our pleasure.
The smell of cornbread baking.
The simple rhythm of a heartbeat, whether it is your own, your husband's, your children, the new life inside of you... a simple beat lights up the face because it proclaims... LIFE. Another moment to breathe, another chance to savor the kisses of tender lips, relish the hugs of enveloping arms, feel the softness of baby's skin, hear the laughter, wipe the tears, and rejoice in the Joy Giver.
It is often the simplest of things that bring the biggest smile.
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Reminds me of our Savior. The King of Kings left the throne room of heaven and all of it's splendor to enter our world as a baby, wrapped in rags. His throne, a splintered manger, that hours before his birth, held food for animals. He simply came... for you, and for me.
He is Simple Joy.
Joy - The emotion of great delight caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying;a source or cause of keen pleasure or delight.
" ...the joy of the Lord is your strength."
Nehemiah 8:10
Those of us who are Christ followers know no greater joy than that of our Lord and Savior. It is simple yet powerful. Charles Spurgeon encapsulates how I feel:"Let us endeavour to analyze that special and peculiar pleasure which is here called "The joy of the Lord." It springs from God, and has God for its object. The believer who is in a spiritually healthy state rejoices mainly in God himself; he is happy because there is a God, and because God is in his person and character what he is. All the attributes of God become well-springs of joy to the thoughtful, contemplative believer; for such a man says within his soul, "All these attributes of my God are mine: his power, my protection; his wisdom, my guidance; his faithfulness, my foundation; his grace, my salvation." He is a God who cannot lie, faithful and true to his promise; he is all love, and at the same time infinitely just, supremely holy.
Why, the contemplation of God to one who knows that this God is his God for ever and ever, is enough to make the eyes overflow with tears, because of the deep, mysterious, unutterable bliss which fills the heart. There was nothing in the character of Jupiter, or any of the pretended gods of the heathen, to make glad a pure and holy spirit, but there is everything in the character of Jehovah both to purify the heart and to make it thrill with delight. How sweet is it to think over all the Lord has done; how he has revealed himself of old, and especially how he has displayed his glory in the covenant of grace, and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. How charming is the thought that he has revealed himself to me personally, and made me to see in him my Father, my friend, my helper, my God. Oh, if there be one word out of heaven that cannot be excelled, even by the brightness of heaven itself, it is this word, "My God, my Father," and that sweet promise, "I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." There is no richer consolation to be found: even the Spirit of God can bring nothing home to the heart of the Christian more fraught with delight than that blessed consideration. When the child of God, after admiring the character and wondering at the acts of God, can all the while feel "he is my God; I have taken him to be mine; he has taken me to be his; he has grasped me with the hand of his powerful love; having loved me with an everlasting love, with the bands of lovingkindness has he drawn me to himself; my beloved is mine and I am his;" why, then, his soul would fain dance like David before the ark of the Lord, rejoicing in the Lord with all its might."
(You can read Spurgeon's full sermon here regarding the joy of the Lord... it stirs the heart).
I find joy in each God breathed Word, I see it as I go about serving Him, I have felt it while caring for the dying, and I witness the joy of the Lord in my daily life whether going about the mundane or the marvelous, whether experiencing trials and tribulations or life to the fullest.
Each day is filled with joy beloved, take note of it, bask in it, and enJOY.
Do you have a joy-filled moment you would like to share, feel free to leave a comment below.
Joyfully yours,
Dawna
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