Pure Joy!!!

My husband and I went on a walk this morning.  We walked along a canal in our neighborhood that  has a greenbelt on one side.

As we were walking home, I noticed three dogs playing in the greenbelt.  As I watched them I noticed one of the dogs was weird.  He pranced and his head was too big for his body.  I mentioned it to my husband.  He said it looked like a cartoon dog.

As we got closer we went over to the side and looked more closely at this weird dog.  Then it dawned on us.  This wasn't a dog. We asked the man standing next to the three "dogs" if this weird dog was a donkey.  He said yes.  This baby donkey was only 4 weeks old.

I have never seen anything or anyone ever exhibit such pure joy.  

He was prancing . . . delightedly . . . continually . . . and with no observed effort. I watched in amazement.  It brought a smile to my face.

As we continued our walk I thought about what that donkey would be like when he was fully grown.  Would he be stubborn, mean and hard to get along with, like most donkeys? I wondered what happens to donkeys, from birth to adulthood, that changes them so.

Then, I posed the same question to myself.  About me.  About other humans.  What happens?  What can we do about it?  As we read in the scriptures, "Adam fell that man might be and men are that they might have JOY."

Let's look for joy and start prancing . . . at least inside our homes!