This week our firstborn celebrated her 29th birthday.  Early that morning, I went for a walk through our neighborhood and ended up miles away in my mind.  Transported through time and space to a hospital “alternative birth center” in 1982, I was that young mother again. 

In my mind’s eye, I was lying in a hospital bed gazing at my tiny daughter asleep in the clear plastic bassinet next to me.  Her little pixy face was peaking out from the cocoon of the tightly wrapped swaddling blanket.  She’d come into this world just after midnight, and I’d finally dozed off for a few hours of rest.  It was the most amazing experience of joy to awaken to the sight of my very own daughter asleep nearby! 

Two years prior to that day, I’d been on a journey of infertility that included a multitude of tests, surgery, and drugs.  That journey had frightened me, frustrated me, and humbled me.  But eventually it brought me to this place of overwhelming joy.

Sometimes the hardest times in life become God’s messengers of incredible joy!

Now the same daughter is a mother of her own little baby girl.  The joy of being a parent has been multiplied with the new joy of being a grandmother! 

Today, I hope you are the recipient of joy!  And if you are in a difficult season in life, watch for God’s messenger who might be right around the corner with a package of joy special delivery just for you.