Joy and Intimacy - by Elizabeth Reynolds

C.S. Lewis wrote in Reflections on the Psalms, “I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.”

I know another perfect analogy. It is just like when you are on holiday and you see something amazing or beautiful or just really cool. I don’t know what it is about us humans, but for some reason, our next instinctual thing to do is turn around and find somebody who is with us to say “Look at that! How amazing is that!”

And just like C.S. Lewis said, it completes our joy. It really does – or at least it does for me… Can you relate? On the flip side, I find, there is something so frustrating about seeing something amazing, beautiful or just really cool and turning around to find there is nobody with you to share that joy. Nobody to show it to and see them smile too. This is why I could never holiday by myself.

How mysterious. How lovely. That God made us to share joy with each other. I read this C.S. Lewis quote in a daily devotional I have and the writer adds at the end:

“We cannot praise God until we delight in Him and love Him. We cannot do those things until we know Him intimately. We cannot know Him intimately until we spend time with Him.”