Jesus loves *****

A few weeks ago, we were watching two of our little granddaughters and I was getting ready to sing to them before bedtime. Amie, the older of the two, requested "Jesus", Amie (or so I thought) so I asked her if she wanted to hear "Jesus Loves Me"? She shook her head yes and then I asked if she wanted to sing with me and she also shook her head yes. So, as I started singing, and she was not, I kept asking her about singing but now she was saying no. So, I thought, ok... maybe she's planning on joining on the chorus.

I got to "Yes, Jesus loves me..." and she said, "no, Amie". So, I stopped and, once again, asked if she wanted to sing with me. She said no. This happened a few times and now there were tears along with it... I was so confused... I finally moved on to a different song and she seemed to be ok so I chalked it up to a little girl being tired.

Well, last week, their mommy and daddy brought home a baby brother and, during the week, mommy mentioned that Amie had been singing "Jesus loves Gordie".... Wow! Talk about senior moments! Why didn't grandma get it several weeks ago! "Jesus loves Amie!!!" Live and learn, right?  "Jesus loves, insert name here... Now the only difficult part is, when you have three (or more) grand babies on your lap, whose name do you insert into the song? I mean, after all, Jesus loves all of us, grandmas included. I guess I should switch my bedtime song to "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world..." I could insert several names into that one.

"Yes, Jesus loves *****. Yes, Jesus loves *****. Yes, Jesus loves *****. The Bible tells me so."

Joy to the World

Obviously, this post was meant to appear before Christmas but I always use my iPad for creating and posting to my blog and I kept getting an error message each time I tried posting.  So, for those of you who may have been missing me, I think I finally got the new Blogger changes figured out and, as a test, I'm once again trying to post something that hit me before Christmas because, after all, the joy of the Christmas season should truly last all year long:

As we prepare for the Christmas celebration, are we preparing our hearts for the King?  Last night, during a time of worship, we sang the first stanza of "Joy to the World" and then the song changed to...

"Joy, unspeakable, joy!

An overflowing well..."

And I kept getting the words backward, singing...

"Joy, unspeakable, joy!

An overwhelming flow..."

But isn't it almost the same?  Not really... An overflowing well can happen slowly, even with a constant drip or dribble, but the joy we can experience, the joy that comes from a relationship with Jesus is more like an overwhelming flow, the kind of overflow that comes from a torrential rain.  It's constant and steady... Joy that makes your heart sing even when the life around you is in total chaos.  Doesn't that sound more like the joy you would want to experience?

"No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow..."

Isn't that a beautiful promise?  In John 14:27, Jesus said, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you."  When Jesus gives us peace, he replaces other emotions with joy... Again, doesn't this sound like something you want to experience?  You can... All we need do is ask... Ask and you shall receive... Come to Jesus today, lay your sorrows and burdens at His feet and let Him fill your heart with Joy.

"Joy to the world! The Lord has come; Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing..."