“Can we, Mommy?”

Three pairs of little eyes stared longingly up at me.

They wanted to go rain dancin’. To jump in puddles. To shuffle their bare feet over the wet grass and have their toes and bottoms wriggle and slosh through the water that flowed along the curb’s edge down by the street.

But I hesitated.

All I could think of was the effort it would take to clean them all up. The extra laundry I would have to do. The baths they would need to take. The work just didn’t seem worth the effort.

And then it struck me.

How glad I am that God doesn’t calculate His efforts before blessing us with joyful experiences. How grateful I am He doesn’t measure the work load, the dirty laundry we soil, the energy we require. To Him we’re always worth the effort. Hebrews 12:2 says “…for the joy that was set before him [He] endured the cross” (ESV).

What “joy” do you think that was?

Dear sweet friend, it was you!

And it was me.

His joy came in knowing that we would be His children, that we would be in relationship with Him. The cross was worth the pain and excruciating suffering Jesus endured because He knew we would be reconciled to Him forever.

I hope you know today how significant you are to Jesus. You’re not a burden. You’re not too much. You are deeply, deeply loved.

And no matter what, you bring your Father joy.

*first published by the Joyful Life Magazine.