What do you see in the picture above? A young girl filled with joy and ecstasy. A face that beams. A smile that radiates. Hands that are moving with pure pleasure. A blue blouse with a red bird with blue wings that seems to symbolize the girl herself. Two necklaces, one necklace made of small white beads; the second necklace with larger red beads, all color coordinated.
There is a shadowed dancing figure behind the happiness of the young woman plus other dancers and singers who seem to be at a party.
"Joy. Inexpressible joy. Overflowing Joy. Abundant joy. Highest joy. Shouts of joy. Songs of joy. Everlasting joy. Exalted joy. Unutterable joy." All of these phrases about joy come from the Bible.
Joy is intrinsic to Jesus, knowing God and living the Christian faith. In a listing of Christian attributes by the Apostle Paul, joy is listed at the top, right after love itself. Joy permeates our whole lives as Christians.
Once again, at the orphanage/vocational school at KCI, we found that God had worked the miracle of joy into the lives of the youth. In the Bible and the book of Jeremiah, God had promised that he would turn sorrow and sadness into joy and gladness, and God still fulfills that promise today. God took the sorrows and sadnesses of these kids and transformed their tears into inner radiant happiness. That is not to deny the enormous suffering and death that all of these young people have experienced through the loss of their parents to AIDS, but God is always faithful to his promises: Life is stronger than death, joy is more powerful than sorrow, and God is forever transforming tragedies into triumphs. Such was the miracle we saw first hand at an orphanage/vocational school in Uganda.
LET US PRAY: Dear Jesus. As each one of us walks through the valleys of deep darkness and death, we pray that you will transform our sorrows into joy. Transform us so that we do not experience fleeting fragments of joy but the fullness of your joy forever. In Jesus Name.
