Darkness to Light: Joy as Completion

If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ~ John 15:10-12 

You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. In your righthand are pleasures forevermore. ~ Psalm 16:11


Yes, there is a Nirvana. It is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem. ~ Kahlil Gibran


Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
By now it is probably evident that we can often substitute the words love and joy for each other.

 Love IS the fulfillment of all things.

 And true joy is what happens once love has had its way!

 It is something definitely worth sharing!

 Ultimately, it comes down to this: we have a God who in created us in love for the joy of relationship.

 We have a God who seeks that joy to be spread through relationship with each other.

 We have a God who has put the spark of joy inside us and wants more than anything for us to find that joy.

 We get hints of it along the way: through the sharing of our gifts; through children, family and friends; through the completion of a project born out of hard work and love.

 Sometimes the joy finds us in moments and seems fleeting.

 But other times, that joy begins to take root and grow inside us. And then we begin to want that same joy for others.

 And as we discover our true selves - the selves God created us to be - the joy grows exponentially.

 When we remember that we are created in the image of God and that the culmination of all things is for our union with God, how can we not be joyful?

 As this Christmas dawns, look for, listen for, taste, smell, and touch all the ways in which joy seeks you. Share it. And remember that this is where you and all of creation are meant to be.
Prayer: Joyful, Joyful we adore you, God of Glory, Lord of Love. Melt our hearts like flowers before you, op'ning to the sun above. Amen




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