God loves lavishly, soaking creation with life, and the joyful freedom of God’s love traces the horizon of our joy. That is why the joy we know in the company of God is not dependent on immediate circumstances such as good health, fair wealth, or amiable fellowship. Joy reflects a divine care so broad it enfolds the whole creation, yet so sensitive it registers the fall to earth of a single sparrow (Matt. 10:29). Joy draws its color and intensity from a palette of grace far more splendid than the muted hues that dapple the surface of daily experience.
It is acquaintance with this palette that prompts James to say, “Count it all joy” (James 1:2, RSV). This robust embrace of all facets of experience reveals that the spiritual life is a journey into the fullness of joy, a joy as complete as the love between Jesus and his Father (John 15:9-11; 16:16-24). The author of Hebrews reminds us that “for the sake of the joy that was set before him [Jesus] endured the cross” (Heb. 12:2). So encompassing is this joy that, like a desert sunset, it sheaths in’ gold every stony hour of suffering, every bony tree of our endurance. Paul recalls an experience among the Christians in Macedonia that graphically- portrays the power of joy to transfigure a human land- scape: ”during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their’ extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part” (2 Cor. 8:2). Our companion, guide, and comforter on the great journey into joy is the Holy Spirit. At the outset, it is the Spirit who inspires joy when grace has opened us to receive God’s word (1 Thess. 1:6). Across the years, when life’s perplexities impoverish us, it is the Spirit who, working through the gift of joy, removes all boundaries to our hope (Rom. 15:13).
——]ohn S. Mogabgab, “Editor ’s Introduction,” Warming»: (November/December 1993