Meditations on Joy
I recently took a drive up the Eastern coastline to visit a college friend who is now living in Wilmington, NC. While visiting her, I noticed one of my very first Prayers in Color paintings sitting on her mantle. I had forgotten she even owned it - it brought me tremendous joy to see it there and I thought how kind and loving she was to purchase my art while I was just beginning to share it with the world.
One of the greater joys in my life is spending time with friends, especially the ones that have stood the test of time. My college friendships are some of the deepest and most meaningful ones I have, and anytime we get together, there is just an abundance of joy! There is nothing in life quite as sweet as a friend who has been beside you through thick and thin and the joyful assurance that comes from their steadfast friendship. I am humbly aware of God’s kindness to me in bestowing a multitude of women like this in my life; a blessing beyond measure to an only child.
“Oil and incense bring joy to the heart, and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.”
Proverbs 27:9
It has been said there are three kinds of friends: friends for a reason, friends for a season, and friends for a lifetime. Many people enter our lives for a period of time, but only a select few become close, forever friends. As I consider that, I can’t help but beam with joy at all the ways God has delivered friends to me in exactly the right seasons and for exactly the right reasons. I think of all the love, laughter, and tears that have been shared and am reminded that God is my friend, too - He has shared love, laughter, and tears with me as well. Experiencing these friendships brings me so much joy, strength, and encouragement. I see God’s hand in every one of them, and I joyfully rejoice that friendship was His loving idea.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.”
John 15:11-14
The joy of friendships like these doesn’t come from ease or passing emotions like happiness or excitement but from knowing they are rooted in abiding in one another, loving one another, and sacrificially serving one another the way Christ has done for us.
Thank you, God, for my many friends. Thank you for putting me on paths I would have never chosen for myself because you wanted the joy of friendship to be my companion. Thank you for providing friends to share in my joys and in my sorrows. And thank you for being the greatest One of all.
Want to go deeper on Joy? Check out this post.