“You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.” ~Acts 2:28
Joy. Unexplainable joy. It comes only from God. After the clothes washing experience, our translator took us to another part of the village. We went down several back alleys to get to a little blue house surrounded by other houses that were falling apart. Immanuel, our translator that lived in the village, had brought us to this house for a special visit. It was not a woman that needed Jesus because as soon as my eyes caught hers, I could see Jesus in her. We had just met Immanuel’s grandmother. She was a 93 year old woman who exuded joy with her entire being. As soon as I saw her, I shouted that she was my Haitian grandma. She walked over and gave us all hugs and kisses and then held my hand for the rest of the time we were with her. We talked with her briefly and she was so excited to be able to spend some time worshiping with us. She began to sing 10,000 Reasons and invited us to join in. Then she sang us a worship song in Creole and told us next time we would have to get the words and sing with her. After that, she prayed over us. It was so beautiful and you could feel the presence of the Lord washing over us. It was now our turn to sing her a song in English and pray over her. I have seriously never met anyone with as much joy as she had. Here we were standing on the porch of a house that is smaller than my apartment before the race dancing to the beat of a drum and being invited to come live with this woman we had just met. To be honest, if I could have packed my bags and moved in with her for the rest of our time in Haiti, I would have. We told her how much joy she had. She told us the joy of the Lord was her strength and that her joy will only ever come from Him. That fact was evident from the first time I saw her. God was speaking to me that I could have as much joy as grandma had. He alone is where we get our joy from. His joy is our strength despite our circumstances. In my book, joy does not always equal happiness. I can be joyful and still walking through a difficult time. I have to be willing to look for joy in the things that are not always fun and happy. There is so much freedom in that truth.
