J is for Jesus and Joy

 

I was less than nine weeks old when I was baptised so I have no recollection of it.  However, I do know that the first reading that day started with, “Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice!”

 It seems to me that my life in Christ began with joy and that’s how it is now.  

I don't mean that life has been a bowl of cherries, far from it.  I have cared for two relatives  through their lengthy terminal illnesses.  I have known rejection.  I have suffered depression and a mental breakdown.

St Andrew's Church, Stainton le Vale

However, though everything God has held on to me, even when I haven't been able to hold on to him and in my seventies I know a deep joy like never before. 

Today I have celebrated Holy Communion in a tiny village high in the Lincolnshire Wolds and rejoiced at that privilege.  

Thanks be to God.