“For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” (Psalms 30:5). It is remarkable how little it takes to alter our moods dramatically. We can be seriously down in the dumps and a smile from a stranger can immediately lift our spirits. Or we can be in line at the happiest place on earth eating a delicious ice cream cone when our scoop of ice cream falls out and all of our happy feelings evaporate immediately. We will never be able to perfectly control the conditions that lead to and maintain happiness and pleasure, or that ward against or banish pain and sorrow. We will often have a good mood slip out of our grasp all too quickly, or have a bad moon linger on far longer than we would like. Happiness and sadness, anger and contentment, fear and serenity, ecstasy and depression - all will grip us and then sooner or later they will fade away. But Joy sticks. Joy endures. If positive emotions like happiness and pleasure are the highlights, and negative emotions like sadness and pain are the shadows, then joy is the true hue that runs throughout, taking unto it the highlights and the shadows to create a far richer world of color. Joy is not merely a synonym for happiness nor is it merely one emotion among many. Joy is the thread that binds us to our Heavenly Father and to each other, stronger than the cords of death, knitting our hearts together in love and unity. It is the underlying current of our lives, constantly drawing us towards our Savior Jesus Christ, pushing us to strive always to be better than we are. It is the ultimate meaning of our existence. Joy sticks with us through thick and thin, happiness and sadness, and nothing, “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the [joy we find in the] love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).
