And He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 18:2-4
This morning I awoke and came downstairs and kept hearing this strange noise. I was not quite awake yet and well, I don’t get very concerned about “strange” things, I am more a shoulder shrugger with a “hmmm oh well” and go on about my task at hand.
After I got my first cup of coffee almost down, I was awake enough to be able to have visual ability again… so I took my morning glance outside to enjoy the beauty and quiet of an early Saturday morning… to be jolted wide awake by at least six hot air balloons that I thought were about to land in our front yard or on our roof.
Of course I screamed and ran up the stairs to awaken my children who were so looking forward to sleeping in this first Saturday (in forever) that they did not have to be somewhere at daybreak…
The child in this 36 year old had burst forth. I was just as giddy as they were at the sight of all these beautiful balloons in the sky and the sound of them was like sitting on the shore of the beach listening to the waves roll in.
I didn’t care that it was only a little after 7am and neither did my girls.
We were just excited to see the site!
The sacrifice that had to be made to be a part of it was well worth the prize of seeing the ballons.
As I watched these balloons, my children, and examined my own heart before the Lord as I lived in this moment He had given us, I realized that this joy we experience as we watched these balloons, as we looked with hopeful expectation as to when and where the next one would break over our horizon, is the same joy that God desires that I have for Him as I look to Him and seek His hand in my life.
As I studied through Psalm 13 with Chuck Swindoll this morning I read:
…when trials are dealt with in the flesh, the eyes bear the marks of that fact. We cannot hide it. Our entire countenance becomes rigid and inflexible, lacking the “sparkle” and the “light” that once manifested itself from our hearts. When inner joy leaves, so does the “shine” from our eyes.
~ Swindoll
I watched my children’s eyes shine this morning. I could see the joy in their eyes as they watched these balloons. I see that same joy in their eyes quite often. My husband and I notice it and we can’t wait to gauge each other and point it out to one another when we see it. We love seeing our children full of joy with eyes bright with glorious shine. The kicker, every time I look into my husband’s eyes, when he is watching their eyes during this time, I see that same shine in his eyes. His joy is made full as he watches the fullness of joy in his daughters’ eyes.
Joy reflects joy.
Love reflects love.
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18
I know when my eyes are not shining. Others know when my eyes are not shining, especially others that know the Lord, because those that belong to Him when they look in the eyes of another that belongs to Him, we are all with unveiled faces beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord… When the glory of the Lord is not shining in my eyes it is obvious to those that know what it is to have that shine in their own eyes.
Do you know what I realized this morning… that shine leaves my eyes, the same way it left David’s in Psalm 13.
When I begin to face anything in the flesh.
Whether it be trials or sin or service… the moment we begin to exalt the enemy that has come against us, or exalt sin, or exalt the to-do list before us, instead of exalting the God that is with us and for us… that’s when the shine in our eyes fades.
When we begin looking out at the enemy instead of looking up to Christ, or when we choose to disobey the Word of our God and hide sin in our heart instead of His Word, or when we begin seeing “the stuff” as a burden instead of a gift, slowly we will begin to feel the joy of the Lord being sucked out of us and our eyes begin to lose their shine and our service becomes work and rote not an act of love and obedience.
We begin to no longer serve our God with joy. We no longer are looking at life through clear eyes of gratitude with a glad heart, but through shaded eyes of burden and a fainting heart.
This is not what God wants for us…
Our Heavenly Father wants to see joy shining in our eyes just as much, even more so, as we want to see joy shining in our children’s eyes as they look in awe and wonder of the beauty of this world and all the many little gifts of glory that our Father gives us… gifts we don’t deserve.
His joy, His mercies, His glory, His presence is new every morning. He is a beautiful gift that He gives us when we choose to open our sleepy eyes and seek Him. We must choose to awaken each morning looking with hopeful expectation for the when and where that He will break over our horizon and enter our site in all His majesty.
The joy of the Lord is always available to those who belong to Him and seek Him.
Let His joy reflect in your eyes today.
Come before Him as a child. Trusting in Him. Looking up to Him. Enjoying Him. Obeying Him.
If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love;
just as I have kept My Father’s commandments
and abide in His love.
These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you,
and that your joy may be made full.
John 15:11