Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
You know those moments, where everything, and I mean everything, is so right with the world, specifically your world, that you can’t help but be joyful? And however you show it—belly laugh, chuckle, big grin, quiet 
smile—everyone around you can’t help but see it and feel happy too. Or maybe you’re down about something, and you see someone being that full and you can’t help but be perked up a little yourself.
We see Jesus rejoicing in today’s lectionary reading from Luke 10:
Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I give you praise, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.” (Luke 10:21)
Imagine Jesus rejoicing… not meditative, not teaching, not parrying with the authorities, but rejoicing. His immediate response is not to congratulate himself or hug everyone around him but rather, to give thanks. I suspect the hugs came quickly thereafter, for it was the return of the seventy-two disciples and his reminder that their success came from their names being written in heaven that revealed the joy. But thanks came first for Jesus… in joy and in sorrow, in pain and in triumph. May we learn from the way he obeyed the Father’s gracious will at all times.
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