Since Jacob was born I've found myself singing "Splish Splash I was takin' a bath" every time I bath him. One result of this is that bath-time is now known as 'Splish-a-Splash' and all you have to do is say this to him to get an excited response (please don't tease him with this).Smiles and laughter all the way to the bath and then as his feet go in plenty of kicking, as he lies down in it his hands begin to smack the water and joyful screams and laughter proceeds from him...every single time!
Seven months and he hasn't tired of splish-a-splash, In fact I think he's enjoying it more and more each night as feet kick and hands fly the bathroom gets soaked and I get drenched.
As I was thinking about this today I thought that it was a 'sort of' illustrative example of how Philippians 4:4 ought to be to us; "Rejoice in The Lord always...".
As we lose our sense of fun in simple things like splashing, climbing trees or rolling down a sand dune, we tend to lose the zeal, passion and joy that we have when we first begin to follow Jesus fades away. I'm not fully sure why, but that just seems to be the way it is. Simple things that once thrilled us seem 'old news' or less thrilling to us, perhaps stresses and difficulties drown us or we think ourselves too 'mature' for those simple things.
But I'm pretty sure that when the Bible instructs us to 'rejoice in the Lord always', that it means always. In who He is and all that He has done for us. Delighting in His love, mercy, holiness, justice, jealousy, knowledge, authority, might, wrath, His omnipotence, that He is omnipresent and in all of who He is.
Delighting in the cross of our salvation, in His Spirit which began the work in us and continues to perfect us, in His word by which He speaks to us and instructs us, in His call to service and worship of Him, in His sovereignty over all things and even in His working all things (even suffering), for good in the lives of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.
