Joy!

           

     This picture was shared with me on Facebook this week. I found it to be a haunting snapshot, hastily take as Sarah was going home from the hospital after having open heart surgery yet touching, yet very moving. It called to me as the Sirens called to Ulysses.  However, unlike Ulysses, I answered the Sirens call and returned to the picture captivated by the images there. Then I realized this is the third Sunday in Advent, Gaudete Sunday. Joy! Joy! Joy! That emotion of the heart that emotion of the soul, JOY! Joy flows from the picture, emanating from the smiles and from the eyes birthed in the hearts and the souls of two people whose lives intersected for such a brief moment in time yet joined for all eternity. 

     Many prayers were said for young Sarah and for the doctor entrusted with fixing the beating heart found within here. Prayers said to give her peace and to guide his hands for such delicate surgery. The apostle Paul addressed moments like this in his letter to the Philippians when he wrote, "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice! Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God”. 

     In the same way that patient and doctor have been joined together so have I and this picture been joined. When I think of Joy, when I experience Gaudete Sunday, when I think of answered prayers I will again hear the sirens of this one simple snapshot, bringing back to mind a living example of the joy of Christ.