With
Joy By The Holy Spirit
“It was then that,
filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of
heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever
and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased
you to do.” (Luke 10:21)
How provocative to our
imagination! What wonder could have precipitated
this impulse of Joy? Were Jesus’ arms
stretched tight toward heaven …trying to get as close as he could to his Father? Were his eyes welling with tears as this
Praise was thrust forth from his soul?
Luke is
silent to these questions, only recording that Jesus then turns to his disciples
and declares how privileged they are to witness this unfolding of the Kingdom
of God.
Luke captures the disciples in
the act of being Reborn, ReCreated into a Child of God who sees: what is hidden from the arrogant; what is oblivious to the
complacent, who have eyes that cannot see Jesus-The-Word planted in millennia
past, within a mere a ripple, but now a Tsunami of Love …crashing upon creation
…crying, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
The Holy Spirit is Fire and
Power and Joy. This, is what gripped
Jesus to Exult with Praise to his Father.
This, is what gripped his disciples, what drew them from the seen to the
Unseen, from the hidden to the
Revealed -were Surrender releases into Unknowable Glory.
Holy Spirit grip me!
Re-Create me into a mere child
with the eyes of your Father. Possess me with your Tumultuous Love, that in
serving you I too, will be filled with joy by the Holy Spirit; that
I too will give witness to your Saving
Power, to your Presence within my smallness; that all I am and do will Exult
and Praise and Glorify your Holy Name.
May this please you to do.
