Originally Posted: September 20, 2007

Title: Joy To The World!

Yes, I know Christmas is still several months away, but it made for a good title.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the subject of joy. It seems like most of us, myself included, miss out on a lot of the pleasures in life that God has given to us.

Think about the beginning of the world. After each one of the six days of creation God said "it was good." In Genesis 2:8 it says the trees were "pleasing to the eye" and when Eve was hanging around the forbidden fruit tree the Bible says the fruit was also "pleasing to the eye." If we simply look around at the beauty of the world today we can only imagine the magnificent views and beauty the world had before thousands of years of sin and decay. Now while the Bible doesn't say this and it's strictly my imagination I can almost picture God saying "They're going to like this" as He created the world. From the start of the world our Lord was making things beautiful for us.

In Jeremiah 32:41 God says "Oh how I'll delight in doing good things for them!" (The Message) At the start of God's dialog He says how He will allow Babylon to capture Israel because of their sins, but He then says starts talking about He will restore them and how He will delight in this. I think it's amazing how the Lord, almighty God, Creator of heaven of earth will take delight in restoring His people. And in this verse God says He delights in doing good things for His people!

And talk about doing good things – In Luke 2:10 an angel tells the shepherds, "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people." God once again comes to the rescue of His people – this time by sending His Son to die for our sins.

Too often I think we miss "love notes" from the Lord. Perhaps every morning when we wake up to the sun shining it's one of God's ways to say "Good morning. I love you." And even when it's raining in the morning, maybe it's God's way of saying, "Good morning. Today I'm allowing your water to refresh and your food to grow. I love you."

Perhaps when we get together as Christians and have fun, when we laugh and just enjoy being together, God is saying, "Have fun together. I love y'all." Okay, so maybe God doesn't say "y'all" but you get my point. Much like a parent who will take his or her child somewhere just so they will have fun maybe God allows us to go places, just to have fun. I believe that just like a parent enjoys watching their children opening up a Christmas or birthday gift and seeing the happiness in their face God enjoy giving us gifts and watching us enjoy them.

So maybe you and I should try to be more receptive to our Heavenly Father's "love notes." Perhaps we should even say thank you every now and then. And maybe we should even say "I love You" back to Him. In fact, I've been trying over the past month to say "I love You" to Him at least once a day. I urge you to try it – It's amazing what it can do.