JOY: a beautiful word with a glorious meaning—what does it mean to you? I would imagine that ten people might give ten different answers and the reason for that is clear. Literally all of us have been raised in an atmosphere of guilt—we all are bad and deserve punishment. Consequently, each of us has a basic morose subconscious attitude. that attitude manifests itself in every aspect of our existence. Because of our guilt, we cannot possibly be happy—oh, we try, but usually fail miserably. Nobody’s hair looks right; look at that dress, she thinks she’s hot stuff; boy, I told him off today; and on and on.
Lets try a different approach and see what happens. How about trying to ignore the externals we observe and begin to see what’s inside—the face of Jesus. Did you ever hear Jesus talk about someone’s dress or hair or anything personal. No, but you did hear him repeatedly talk about each person’s inner beauty. He never incriminated anyone. Rather he forgave everyone. Jesus knew full well that each of us is different outside, but beautiful and perfect inside. Jesus recognized that his spirit, our spirit, and the spirit of everything in existence mirrors the the spirit (image) of its creator. Jesus saw the absolute beauty in everyone and everything. He told his thick-headed apostles that the kingdom of God is spread out all over the earth about them, but they didn’t see it.
Once we begin to see the face and spirit of Jesus in everyone, true Joy is ours, because we are seeing the face of God. Let us all try to change our attitude and become joyous in the glory of our neighbor who is God. My book , Wilderness Cry, explains all.
WILDERNESS CRY by Hilary L Hunt MD 