I remember the first road trip my family made to San Diego, CA.  Mom driving, Grandma in the passenger seat, and my younger sister and I in the back seat with a box of Dunkin Donuts between us.  The anticipation of Sea World and Disneyland was more than this four year old little girl could handle.  I am confident I wore out the questions, “How much longer?”, “When will we be there?”,  “Is it time?”  All expressions of joyful anticipation of the coming of something great! They understood the inner battle I was faced with, and my excitement could not be contained.

In Matthew 2:10 the response of the Wise Men was a great, uncontainable joy!  They saw the star they had anticipated!  That’s it!  That’s all!  The anticipated star that would lead to the long awaited Messiah.  A prophecy so many had longed to see in their lifetime.  It was now upon them.  They had reason to be full of joy!  I imagine they leapt with excitement, embraced with hugs, and shouted celebratory exclamations!  Or, maybe they were so overcome with joy, that they wept, and fell to their knees in reverent humility.  Either would have been appropriate and acceptable.  The source of their joy was the arrival of the Savior.

Every day dawns with an embrace from our Savior as He gives us life and breath by choosing us to be His ambassadors for the day.  Breathe in the gift of life and call out in praise the glory due His name. Celebrate His calling on you with joyful anticipation of what lies ahead today.  He has chosen me, and He has chosen you this day!

I close my post each week with “Joyfully Healing from the Inside Out,” because I have been given life.  I have faced death, and He chose to restore my life.  It’s been a long journey, and truthfully, some days have been discouraging.  That discouragement comes when I lose sight of the bigger picture and focus my thoughts on me instead of Him.  When I rise in the morning with breath in my lungs, it is with joyful anticipation of what He has in store for me today.  It is the healing touch of His presence in my life that causes my uncontainable joy.  This healing journey has allowed me to reflect back and acknowledge all those times when it seemed I was alone.  Truthfully, He had me in His loving and safe arms.  He never left my side.  He was with me in the pain and the sorrow, the confusion and the grief, the celebrations and the anticipations, the longing and the suffering, the dreaming and the reality, the play and the work, and the love and hurt.  His plan and His ways are far greater than my mind can perceive, but I still choose to follow Him like those wise men followed the star to the manger over two thousand years ago.  My joy is based in the anticipation of all He has for me today!

This Christmas, I pray that you will follow the star to the manger in anticipation of experiencing joy in an uncontainable and indescribable way!

Joyfully Healing From the Inside Out,