Joy!

Joy comes in the morning! This was my thought this afternoon as I looked skyward while out at the pond. Above me the sky looked layered, the top layer was just beginning to darken while the second layer was still bright underneath. It created a sensation of night and morning all at once. Were it summer this would be the time of day that all the night creatures begin to sound. However, we are well into winter so the bull frogs that will be found around the pond’s edge are now quiet as are the crickets that hide in the grass on the bank of the pond.

There truly is joy in the morning. This truth is found in Psalms 30:5, “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” What promise, what hope, what JOY! How often do your worries and troubles seem magnified at night only to appear much less threatening in the morning? This is a physical analogy that I share with you, but if you have had this experience you know how exhilarating you feel when morning finally comes. As it pertains to spiritual things, I think the feeling is very much the same.

Consider that before our salvation we were enduring night, darkness, separation from God. Then along comes the morning, bright, beautiful and full of promise, full of hope. Morning here becomes a Who, no longer a “what”. Who? Jesus Christ, the Morning Star! Look at another promise this one from II Peter 1:19, “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.” Take care to keep God’s Word in your heart for it shines a light in this dark world until Jesus Christ comes again to take those belonging to Him to their heavenly home.

In closing, Jesus tells us Himself who He is. In the last half of the verse in Revelation 22:16 He says, “I am the root and offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” Remember that while the night is representative of separation from God the Father, Jesus is the Light that dispels this darkness thereby giving us access to our Father and Creator.

Take a few moments to meditate on the words of the hymn, “Heaven Came Down”. I pray this is your testimony!

O what a wonderful, wonderful day, day I will never forget; After I'd wandered in darkness away, Jesus my Savior I met. O what a tender, compassionate friend, He met the need of my heart; Shadows dispelling, with joy I am telling, He made all the darkness depart.

John W. Peterson

(From The Pond 2016)