Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” — John 15:11

All our lives
we grasp at joy
but we cannot hold onto it.
It slips through our grasp
like water.
No net knit
of money
or romance
or career
can capture it for us.
Like water joy touches
but cannot be grasped.

But what if One
had a Way
not of grasping
but of yielding —
of yielding
to an ocean of joy?

Would you yield
to the One
to live as He lived
and love as He loved
and be led
to the shore
of an infinite sea
and stand open-armed
in the surf
while wave after wave
of joy
washed over you?

Devotional poem © 2015 Michael Himick. Used with permission.

We’ve been looking at John 10:10, and seeing that truly following Jesus is the way to live a full and rich life. Here’s a devotional poem from Christ-follower Tim Adornetto seeing the same. It’s called “His Handiwork.”

Picasso could make
cold steel surreal.

Van Gogh the canvas
a flowered field.

Michelangelo’s brush
made frescoes divine.

But Jesus, He remade
this stone heart of mine.

Da Vinci, they say, was
a Renaissance man.

While Newton said motion
had laws, had a plan.

And Einstein saw secrets
of light, space, and time.

But Jesus, He renews
my dull darkened mind.

Devotional poem © 2016 Tim Adornetto. Used with permission.

Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” — John 10:10

There’s a winter of sin
between us, Father,
between me and
every neighbor,
between me and
who I was meant to be.
I’m cold, and life’s lost color.
I’ve believed lies
that promised life
but that led
only to this winter of sin.

But you, my Lord,
have led me
out of brown and barren fields
and into spring!
I see, I feel,
life returning everywhere!
Grass greens
beneath my feet.
Leaves unfold
above my head.
Morning birds
sing for me again.

I can stand
surrounded by blossoms
in the widening branches
of a magnolia tree
and dream.
I can gather lilacs
from the old hedges
and live
like never before.
There need be no winter of sin
between us anymore.
Jesus, you’ve brought me
into the life of spring!

Devotional poem © 2015 Michael Himick. Used with permission.