Joy

Today, William was baptised into the family of God. Can you see the joy on his face? A baby touches the heartstrings of our lives.

Jesus does that too. You do not have to be in a church, or among fellow believers in order to feel the joy that Jesus brings to our hearts. In fact, sometimes the church and other believers can get in the way of what God wants to do in our lives. We are all on this journey together, but each of our journeys have different paths. Mine right now is down the "no church" path. I have found much freedom in Christ away from traditional ways. Tradition has its place in the world, just not in mine right now. Joy to me comes in relationships with others, spending time just talking and encouraging one another, or just sitting quietly listening to a distressed friend. Special joy comes when Jesus connects one heart to another in love, when a friend calls or emails or texts just to let you know they were thinking of you, when you discover something new about yourself that you didn't know the moment before, and there your friend is right in front of you to celebrate it with you.

Today, during the baptism, I could see many geese gathering together outside in the chilled sky perhaps in preparation for flying south as the November winds and cold have come to the Midwest. Traveling together and being there for each other. May we learn from them what a joy that can be.