My Joy

The greatest joy of my life is coming to know YHVH in His Word, His Works, and His Ways!  One of the scaffolding joys is that it is a process, not a position.  It is His work, not mine.  Another of the scaffolding joys is that He uses such a wonderful variety of people, plants, animals, the earth, its  elements, and the heavenly bodies to display His Works and His Ways.  Another of the scaffolding joys is that of the many miracles He hides in His Word, and in His Language, and the Joy of Discovering these Hidden Wonders.  Another scaffolding joy is coming to know others on the same path of joy, love, wonder, and learning.  

For years, I felt a suspicion that all these joys existed.  After all, there were all the manifest works to hint at the secret and hidden works.  My greatest sorrow and disappointment was how easily people got sidetracked, whether into pride, or arrogance, or self sufficiency, or laziness, or materialism, or busy-ness.  Of course some chose their side tracks, and others simply got derailed.

Then I met the wonderful man I would one day marry.  And I began to really see the joys I had missed before.  I began to recognize the wonders of Creation.  I began to rejoice in finding and sharing miracles every day.  For years we walked together, as a pair of Diogenistic disciples, holding our lanterns high in daylight and in dark, searching for others who were also in search of the Almighty and His Ways.  Occasionally we would find flickers of interest, but never the blazing passion that we felt.

And now we are coming together regularly with people whose greatest desires are now being met in the SWW fellowship.  Most of us at SWW have followed similar paths - somehow sure that the Way was out there - just out of sight - and now, we are not only learning Scripture, learning Hebrew, learning how to put science and art and literature into service to their Creator.  Can there be any greater joy than that alone?

Yes, the greater joy is walking this path together with others.  Two had been a delight.  But finding the rest of you is pure and sheer joy.

Thank you Father!  Thank you Stephen! Thank you Ross!  Thank you SWW friends - and family.

As we experience these joys (in the midst of sorrows, and disappointments, to be sure) we can be building strength, and knowledge, and skills - that we surely will need in days to come.

Anne