Jumping for Joy By Jan Moser During the Advent season, we were blessed by the opportunity to visit a service at our previous church. A hyperactive child seemed to not be able to sit still. He was running up to the lectern, to stand by the pastor, and at one point, he climbed onto a nearby pew, and began jumping up and down! Instead of becoming irritated, people seemed to be patient, indulgent - and even seemed to enjoy his enthusiasm. I found myself smiling inside and out, at his pure and innocent joy. When I thought about it, I realized that the child was actually providing a great role model for those of us who are adults - especially at Christmas- but actually, year-round. With the Bible’s messages of God’s love for us, salvation for us and His promise to always be with us, we all should be “jumping for joy!” Pewcefully expressing honest emotions such as worry, sadness, andanger-especially in prayer to give it to God- and other natural emotions, is Biblically sound. See David as an excellent example. Nevertheless, each day, there are also plenty of gifts from God, such as precious family and friends, waking up another day, the chance to freely worship at church, food to eat, music to sing, and the knowledge that if we have accepted Christ as Savior, we will be with Him forever! Surely, we each can find reasons to jump for joy - at least mentally! For those of us middle-aged or older, our knees might not hold up well, if we take it literally! 😉 Psalm 118:24, NASB “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let’s rejoice and be glad in it.”