Snap Joy :: 2

Snap Joy is simply capturing an everyday moment of delight.

We spent an afternoon at the beach this week with Poppa and Grandma Jill. It was one of those sparkly blue afternoons, not too hot, and perfect for the warm shallow water of low tide on the south shore. The whole family was in the water together. I love how everything is so "big" and wonderful to the littlest among us.

Here is this weeks' snap:

#2: "You Are My Sunshine"

~lg

Snap Joy :: 1

Have you ever felt it?

The depressive dullness of one day after another? Nothing is going drastically wrong, but nothing seems to be wonderfully right either?

It's a dreariness that seems to drain the life out of you, dribble by dribble.

And it pulls you down and drags you inward, till you are convinced the sun just isn't shining anymore. Not in your world.

Oh, but it is.

And those may be real feelings, those gloomy meanderings of the mind, but they're not the whole truth.

Look up.

If you look for joy, it's there.

I've felt the discouragement, and I'm tired of it. Here's how I'm fighting back. By snapping joy.

That's all. One picture a week of something that brings me joy. I don't even have to create a moment. Just notice one. By faith, believe it is there to be captured.

How do I know it's there? Because of a promise. Two of them actually.

"In Thy presence is fullness of joy." 

(Psalm 16:11)

"Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." 

(Matthew 28:20)

As long as Jesus is with us, joy can be found.

Oh snap.

Let this thought be burned in my mind's eye. Let this thought eclipse the others and forever change the way I look at my world and the people in it.

And, as the poet Hopkins reminds us, "Christ plays in ten thousand places," so joy can be found in the most surprising of ways or ordinary of days.

Snap joy. Simple.

Here is this week's snap:


#1: "Lovely in Limbs Not His"

~~~

Here is the full poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins:

As Kingfishers Catch Fire

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; 

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells 

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's 

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; 

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: 

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; 

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, 

Crying Whát I dó is me: for that I came. 

I say móre: the just man justices; 

Keeps grace: thát keeps all his goings graces; 

Acts in God's eye what in God's eye he is — 

Chríst — for Christ plays in ten thousand places, 

Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his 

To the Father through the features of men's faces. 

~lg

I Speak Joy: A Mother's Blessing

I am delighted to announce the arrival of our daughter, Ivy Joy, born on Good Friday! 

What follows is a blessing I scribbled out on the back of a piece of paper one night a few weeks before she was born. We didn't know whether we were having a boy or a girl, but I had an inkling that I carried a girl. And I had more than an inkling that this baby was somehow connected to all I have been discovering about joy. Her very name is part of my blessing to her, and God's blessing to me. "Ivy" stands for faithfulness, and "Joy," well, it speaks for itself! 

My darling,

I speak joy over your coming. 

Joy as you grow, and bloom to bursting,

Joy as you waken to life in the wide world,

Joy as you are received into the arms of your family,

And joy as our Father laughs to behold His reflection in your eyes. 

I speak joy over our meeting.

Joy as we weave our bonds of love,

Joy as we learn each other’s names,

Joy through the sleepless nights,

And joy as we count each sunrise together.

I speak joy over your future.

The wonder-filled joy of discovery,

The riotous joy of whole hearted freedom,

The steadfast joy of a deep-held faithfulness,

And the fiercely won joy of the sorrowful night.

I speak joy over you.

Unspeakable and full of glory,

Fruit of the presence of God,

Fire bright and blazing beauty,

The strength of a hundred hind’s feet on the heights.

I speak joy as my mother’s blessing,

A gift of words and of heart’s desire,

A beseeching prayer for divine bestowal,

A promise kindled by heaven’s purpose,

And my song of praise overflowing. 

{This post was originally published on my main writing blog, The Red Letters Blog. For more about Ivy, parenting, prayer, joy and God, click on over!}

~lg