JOY

                                     

   Joy is continually redefined as I grow older.  Joy was once a day off of school to laze and read and watch TV.  It was a week of camping in the UP, boating, swimming, gathering around a campfire and feeling the security of family.  The exhaustion from a day in the hay field was accompanied by a happy feeling of satisfaction and purpose in a hard job done.  Family gatherings, Christmas and birthdays  meant food and laughter and belonging.  My childhood was filled with these kinds of joy. 

    Then the restlessness of youth changed my joy to independence and living away from that family.  Joy was stolen trips to movie theaters and shopping sprees with four year friends.  Joy was the day after finals when the work was done and summer jobs, summer fun and summer heat lay before me.  I found brief joy in a few love relationships that did not last and turned to great grief and loss.  And then joy was moving on.

     Joy became marrying my  lifetime love and caring for a little baby girl.  But my joy became  moments and not seasons as the responsibilities became longer term and the reality of the brevity of earthly joys became obvious.  And each new church brought the joy of new relationships with common purpose.  And as our family grew , joy was intermingled with sorrow and brokenness , and redefined to agree with Paul and Jesus ,  seeing my children follow Him.  It was joy because it meant they had found lasting peace and strength for their sorrow, and hope in failure. 

    And then as they began to leave home, my joy once again became family gathered for birthday dinners, holidays around a tree, and life events.  I had come full circle and found my joy when they felt the security of family. I have learned to find joy in bright flowers, finished quilts and naps.  And the joy of grandchildren is beginning to bloom and fill my heart shaped flower box.   But now my joy is more and more about  the  One who fills me up when both I and  the house are quiet and empty.  And somehow it makes the other joys more fragrant, more satisfying.  They  are His gifts to me, reminding me that joy here is good but fleeting, but His is forever and glorious. 

                Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. Ps 51:8

                You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound. Ps 4:7

2016