Joy

We had our yard sale today, and the house is rather empty-ish. hmm sad? maybe. I'm not sad right now though, so I'll have to answer that question later. Why am I not sad? Also a good question, or maybe a better one, Why should I be sad? Well, there's really no good reason to be, so I'm not. Fair enough. And I gotta admit, the nice day today and yesterday helped a whole heap, which really means God wanted to make me smile. I'm glad He did, everyone needs a good smile every now and again. He has His ways of doing it too. Usually for me, it's a big blue sky and perfect weather, maybe a few BIG fluffy white clouds in there. Or it could be something a friend says, one of my kids even. (On a side note, I've discovered that children have the very best, purest philsophies on life. It's true. For instance the other day I was talking to Maggie, not my sister-the serious maggie in my class, oh is she serious!, well she told me that she and Conner are going to get married. Not a surprise, i smiled and gave them my blessing. She continued to say that once they are married Conner's sole purpose in life will be to buy her nice shoes, and dresses, and he will take her places. I laughed. I laugh at my kids a lot, but don't worry, they enjoy it immensely. They also enjoy making piles of dirt for me...) God is a God of joy! Praise Him for it! Joy doesn't always mean happiness though. It's hard to define joy, it's not something you can catch with words. My uncle went on a mission trip to Africa last summer with his church. They made a movie when they got back, and he was showing it to us. It was going along, showing the men building things and meeting people and whatnot, then it showed all of these children. They were singing songs and looked like they could have been at a VBS or something. They were laughing and singing and dancing! The movie went back to the men building things and meeting people and whatnot for a while, then it was over. My uncle began to tell us about it, and then he said that the children, those beautiful happy children, were victims of AIDS. They were all orphans. There were about 400 or more of them. They were standing in line, as they did every day, to receive their meal of rice. They stood in that line once every day, and rarely was there enough food for all of them. The youngest children were usually in the back of the line. That is joy. That right there--in their smiles, in their eyes-- that was joy. God is joy and God is love. he doesn't just have love, He IS love. it's what He is. He wrote in the stars! Stars are part of what joy is I think, maybe something that spilled out from it.