May Your Joy Be Complete

Erma Bombeck once told a story about a time in church when she noticed a small child who was turning around in her pew – just smiling at everyone. She wrote, “He wasn’t gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother’s handbag. He was just smiling. Finally, his mother jerked him about, and in a stage whisper that could be heard in a little theater off Broadway, she said, ‘Stop grinning! You’re in a church!’ With that, she gave him a belt on his hind side and as the tears rolled down his cheeks added, ‘That’s better,’ and returned to her prayers. I wanted to hold this child with the tear-stained face close to me and tell him about my God. The happy God. The smiling God, the God who had to have a sense of humor to have created the likes of us.”

It is so true. The God who Jesus invites us to trust is a God of joy, a God of laughter, a God of mercy, and a God of hope. That child’s mother had it all wrong!

In the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”

In your own life, I hope that you take great delight in worship. May your faith be a source of strength and joy. May you also delight in God. And, may you never forget that God delights in you!

Let us pray: God of all joy, we remember that Jesus came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. We also remember that one of the fruits of the Spirit is joy. Fill us again with your joy and with abundant life – that these gifts would spill out of our lives touching and changing the world around us. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.