When I was young, I languished over joy's elusiveness. I sought it on my own terms. I bought it from my own resources. I thought about it with my deluded conceit.
There was no true joy.
All that I can produce was a copy. I lived with a duplicate until I found the source in the person of Christ. Like a tree planted by the streams, my roots have anchored deep on God's abiding word. The seasons come and go yet I hold: I am being sheltered from each and every blight.
I thought joy was to be found when one finds a woman to marry. Not so. Another person in one's life merely highlights one's hidden poverty. If it were not for the life-altering offer of Christ's grace in my life and marriage, I would have gone the drifter's way.
I now experience the measure of joy daily through my converse with Manel. I have been given a life-long companion to grasp the truth that my marriage is a mere gift. I either subscribe to the jargon that man and wife are mere affectionate symbiotic commodities or I sign up to the primary design that this one-flesh union is a grace-developed picture of Christ's love for His people.
When I get a kiss from her, I know by intuitive theology that a miracle is taking place. True love only happens because God loved us first.
This is joy guaranteed to its highest exponent. Soli Deo Gloria!
