Boundless Joy

What is your greatest joy?

The question popped into my head while walking today, and instantly intrigued me. I started thinking of all the things that gave me joy— good food, back rubs, driving with the top down, listening to a waterfall, getting a new electronic gadget, and especially insulting lawyers.

But it didn’t take me long to realize what really gave me my greatest joy: loving my sweet Tina and all the other people in my life. The act of serving my wife— nothing else comes close to that joy. Close behind that joy of loving was the joy of sharing in the joys of others– to see people happy and joyous gives me immense joy as well.

Then I started thinking about God, and my mind completely blew. Think about this: If I get joy from loving my sweet Tina, how do you think God feels? He loves her oh so much more than I do— He has known her for all eternity. He created her to be her uniquely beautiful self. He has cared for her and blessed her every moment of her life. He knows her perfectly and loves her infinitely. I can’t even begin to comprehend the kind of joy that God experiences by loving Tina.

So now imagine this: God has created not only Tina, not only me, not only you, but billions of people, each one created to reflect His Image in a special and unique way. And because He is infinite, He took infinite time and patience to create each one of us, and He has loved and treasured each one of us throughout all eternity. That kind of joy, springing from His love of each one of us, greater than we can conceive, now multiplied by billions of individual members of the human family. God has intentionally created billions of unique children so that He could love each of us, take joy in each of us, and multiply His joy by the billions.

And you know what’s even more amazing than that? God invites you and me to share in His boundless joy as members of His family. When I love people and share in their lives and joy, what I am actually experiencing as a son of God is like dipping my little human toe into the infinite ocean of His joy. My joy is actually His joy, His joy is my joy, and this miraculous boundless joy that He created through bringing us into His family grows ever more every day.