About once every month, I get the opportunity to play bass guitar at our new church, Living Waters. This past Sunday, for the special music we played a little number named “Deep (Way Down)” by the group Selah. It’s a short, but fun little gospel number. We had fun with it, taking the opportunity to play a little louder and with more enthusiasm. Even the practices were fun (if not exhausting). The congregation seemed to enter into it as well. I heard from several people that they enjoyed it, and remarked about how much fun the band seemed to be having.
I reflected on the joy that we felt during that song. It was even decided to extend it a little bit (going through the chorus one more time). As humans, when we encounter joy like that, it’s natural to want to extend it a little bit longer, and make it last. We look back on those time, wishing we could revisit them, or even make plans to try to recreate it. The natural person would shrug and say that we need bad times to enjoy the fun times more, to appreciate them.
I came to a different conclusion. What we were experiencing this past Sunday-pure, innocent joy-is what we were made for all of the time. We, as human beings, were designed for it. Otherwise, we would not long for it intensely. That must have been when Adam and Eve experienced before the fall in the garden, only all the time. And that’s what we have to look forward to in Heaven. Pure, uninterrupted joy in the presence of our God and King. And a thought like that makes me long for it all the more.
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