Bubbling

“All my springs of joy are in you.” (Psalms 87:7 NASB)

As Ouida came down the aisle in her wedding dress, she caught a glimpse of a neighbor - Mrs. McNutt. Mrs. McNutt raised one finger toward heaven and, knowing Mrs. McNutt, Ouida knew what she was signaling, “Make Jesus Number One.” I wish we had done it more and earlier in our marriage but, by God’s grace, we began to understand the vital importance of her silent exhortation.

Some moments of joy that stick in my memory are holding our new little baby (what a miracle), hearing the laughter of our little child, hearing a child give his heart to Jesus, baptizing my child, seeing Mercy take her first steps after so many prayers for her, seeing a son (a young adult) voluntarily become a leader of young people toward Christ, having a daughter leave home and comfort with a desire to bring the light of Christ into the darkness, seeing our son and his wife desiring and seeking to have God at the center of their marriage, hearing a daughter so touched by God that she asked forgiveness, having a son change direction because of a deeper desire to do what God wanted, having sons voluntarily and at their own expense attend a seminar to seek God’s direction to make an eternal impact. Our greatest joys have come out of seeing God’s touch on our family in various ways.

“All my springs of joy are in you.” This verse expresses the idea that joy springs out of our relationship with God. It reminds me of Sunday’s sermon on one of the fruits of the Spirit – joy. It was brought out that one of the goals of modern advertising is to cause us to lose our joy by making us feel discontent if we don’t have their product: a certain wonderful car, granite cabinet tops or whatever they want to sell us. Instead of choosing to seek to fill the vacuum in our souls with Him who created it, we are tempted to try to stuff it full of things, strange sights or exotic experiences. Joy is not something we can buy or a feeling we can generate by positive thinking. If we fall for the lie that stuff will replace a relationship with the Creator then we may have a merry time for a while but we will eventually find ourselves wandering in a joyless wasteland. Let’s seek and do all we can to grow our relationship with Christ because joy is a fruit -- a fruit of the Holy Spirit bubbling up in our hearts, lives and families.