Joy that precedes

   

We’ve been invited!

Someone came to my door recently and commented on our front garden. “Amazing job!” she said, looking at the abundance of colors. I deflected the praise because, well, I had nothing to do with it. This garden was a gift. It came with the house.

This might be one of my favorite things about relocating. We moved in last June, so we missed the spring flowers. I’ve been waiting eagerly for the garden to reawaken so that I could see what unrevealed beauty came packaged with our purchase. Our floral fringe-benefit.

I suppose, in a way, it is the flip side of the wisdom of the Old Testament which notes the irony of stranger inheriting the fruit of a person’s labor. I am that stranger! I did nothing for this riot of color. It was waiting for me to arrive and enjoy it.

Recently, I was meditating on the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. And for the first time, I noted a significant phrase:

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ (vs. 21)

 

I tend to think of joy as something that enters me, a seed that must be watered, a seedling that must be tended. But here, the joy belongs to the master and we are invited to come into it. It’s his party and we can come if we want to.

Lately, I’ve thought much about the greatness of God. The more I process the myriads of needs and problems here on earth, the more my mind staggers at God’s ability to be present in them all. It’s healthy for me, of course, to have this “I cannot attain to it” expansion of my God-ward thoughts.

But this simple phrase, “enter into the master’s joy,” is a helpful reminder. Heaven rejoices! God is not only great, he is full of great joy! C.S. Lewis, in his typically pithy way, says, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.” When we read the seraphim’s song in Isaiah 6:3 (something we sing every week in our church),

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
    the whole earth is full of his glory,”

how can we not sense the exuberance, the sheer exultation?

That’s what we enter into. Easter reminds us of it. I caught a small sense of this joy on Easter morning, worshiping with my son’s family in their large, stone church as congregants of all ages rang bells they had brought from home. (Want a joyful noise? Give children permission to ring bells in public!)

The resurrection, in a sense, brings the party to earth. The door is now open. We can choose to join the celebration that is always happening around the throne of God.

How do I enter? In the parable, the invitation is the reward – not just for good behavior, but for the love for the master which prompted the actions taken. This is Jesus’s joy being shared with me. I enter it by coming close to him through devotion. Through investment of the gifts he’s given me. By seeing what brings him pleasure.

It is the Master’s joy. How can we not catch it?

Joyful Lord, impress this upon our hearts: all heaven rejoices! Help us to live, even in this hurting world, connected to your joy.

Reader: How do you enter into the joy of Jesus? What practices help you in that process?