Surprisingly, a woman handed me her baby and left. I had been standing near a luncheon play area waiting. Behind me the kids were laughing, sliding, and dipping into the plastic balls which filled the slide landing area. I held the baby securely as she and another child went into the restroom.
How did she know it was alright to leave the child with me, a stranger? I assumed, having preached that morning, it was the extra-large gold clergy Cross that still hung around my neck. I thought she may have focused on the Cross as she handed me her son.
Holding a child gives a joy that is unique and memorable. Joy wells up and your heart overflows. Mine did! Now I had a ‘loaner’ baby in my arms and that joy filled me again! We call it mother’s moment.
Jesus speaks of that same joy in the early portion of John chapter 17. It is joy that is lasting. He says that it has come into your heart when you got saved and remains. It’s His gift as the Giver. In this same Scriptural passage, He clarifies that the evil of this world cannot take it from you. His permanent joy lasts.
Yet you and I can be foolish ones and focus on the world more than we are stayed in Him. He indicates the crisis, trauma, or tragedy that has happened in your life cannot remove His joy when your concentration is on His joy, Love, and Peace—this is why Christ is Risen.
The young mother returned to take back her child and I thanked her. My eyes brimmed with love for the three of them as they left, reminding me of His joy.
Jesus prays for your continual joy here: But now I am coming to You, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have My joy made complete in themselves.[ I have given them Your Word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking You to take them out of the world, but I ask You to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth. John 17:13-17