Cancer had overtaken her mother’s body. Like a slow moving lava flow it had destroyed everything in its path.
The end was near.
She didn’t know what to do. She and her mother had journeyed through every stage of this insidious disease and now they were facing the final stage – the last chapter. She was once again sitting with her mother in her hospital room, simply being together. This time though she had prepared something.
Knowing that her mother’s death was inevitable she had madly thought through what she could do to make the most of this time – this moment in history. All that came to her was gratitude. She looked back at all her mother had given to her. The large significant gifts, like life, and the myriad smaller gifts of time and attention that were now no less significant in her eyes.
So that’s what she did. She carefully began to thank her mother for everything. She left no stone unturned, no gratitude unexpressed. Her mother sat quietly drinking in every ounce of love her daughter offered. When she finished tearfully expressing her overwhelming gratitude she sat quietly, letting her mother drink it all in.
Her mother silently stared out the window for an inordinate amount of time. She then turned and looked at her daughter and graciously said,
“It was my joy.”
That was their last conversation.
After her mother’s death she bought a simple silver locket and had it inscribed with the final words of her mother – “It was my joy.” This is her way of reminding herself of the legacy of love given to her by her mother, and an exhortation to make the most of everyday by giving herself for the joy of others.
As I choked back the tears listening to this woman’s story on CBC I thought of the words of Hebrews 12:2,
“Jesus, for the joy set before Him endured the cross and suffered its shame.”
As I sat in silent gratitude for all the Lord has done in my life I sensed Him simply say,
“It was my joy.”
It was the Lord’s joy to lay down His life that we might live. It was His joy to lay aside the privileges of the Godhead, to become a man that we might know the heart of God. It was His joy to be beaten, bruised, betrayed, slandered, sacrificed and slain so that we can live in the freedom and life of the government of God – so that we might become children of God. It was His joy to make a way for us to be set free from sin, to be delivered out of the domain of darkness, and to break the chains of demonic oppression that had bound mankind.
It was His joy to first love us so that we might love Him.
It was joy that led Jesus to the cross. It was the joy of knowing He was the historic fulcrum that would forever shift the balance of spiritual power so that mankind could live in the Father’s righteousness, peace and joy for which we had been created, crafted and called into.
In short, you are Jesus’ joy.
What motivated Him to make unimaginable sacrifices by becoming a man to die on a cross was the joy of seeing you live as a beloved child of God, reconciled to your Father who loves and delights in you. No longer do you need to be oppressed by sin, death and enemy. You can live in your Father’s joy as a beloved son in the family of God, having authority over our spiritual enemy whose only objective is to steal, kill and destroy all that is in the Father’s heart for you and through you.
His sacrificial love was for the purpose of setting us free and catapulting us into the Truth of the love of God. He has made a way for us to live the life that we were designed to live. He has made a way for the family of God to be united in love. All His sacrifices were for love – for you, for us.
Hear Him saying to you, “It was my Joy.
You are the joy of the Lord.
Hebrews 12:1-3
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
1 John 3:1a
“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
John 1:12
“Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”