This image, for me, immediately brought to mind the song “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart”. It was a song I used to sing at Sunday School. In Church Halls we gathered around a teacher playing the keyboard or a guitar, and sang the words written on large pieces of cardboard. No video clips, no power point slides, no ipod adding extra volume. But still it was fun, we sang our hearts out and we encountered God. We sang lyrics of “If I were a butterfly, I’d thank you Lord for giving me wings”, “Peter and John went to pray”, and one of my personal favourites, “I may never march in the infantry…but I’m in the Lord’s army!”
All these years later, it doesn’t take much to bring these songs rushing back to my mind. I know I can never read in the Bible of Peter and John heading to the temple to pray without singing it in song! My children have endured (?) and learnt these songs too as I sing them in the car to them, eager to pass on these delights. That is until the 3 year old tells me “no song mummy, no song”. A reflection I think more on my singing than on the song itself!
There’s something about the eternal dimension of these songs that worship Jesus. It’s like my heart as a child grabbed hold of them, as much as it grabs hold of Scripture and engraves it on my heart. And there these songs and Scripture wait, ready to be recalled to mind when I need it.
“I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
With this song, with its verses of “I’ve got the joy”, “the peace that passes understanding” and “the love of Jesus”, it has all the elements of the life that God wants me to live! He wants me to live in peace in all circumstances even when the circumstances contradict the ability to be at peace. He wants me to live in joy, knowing that I can be content no matter what. And He wants me to live my life from the revelation and knowledge that I have the eternal, everlasting and ever faithful love of Jesus in my heart and upon my life.
It’s certainly something to sing about!
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.
Where? Down in my heart!
Where? Down in my heart!
I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart,
down in my heart
down in my heart to stay.
I’ve got the peace that passes understanding,
Down in my heart,
Where? Down in my heart!
Where? Down in my heart!
I’ve got the peace that passes understanding,
down in my heart
down in my heart to stay.
I’ve the got love of Jesus, love of Jesus
Down in my heart,
Where? Down in my heart!
Where? Down in my heart!
I’ve the got love of Jesus, love of Jesus
down in my heart,
down in my heart to stay.
Blue Skies & Lollipops 