“Faster! Faster!”

Girlish shrieks fill the still September evening. Flashes of hard yellow were mingled with flowing, soft colors. The division of earth and sky was lost. All was one.

“Open your eyes, Rach! Look at the clouds!”

“I can’t! I’m too dizzy!”

Sputters of conversation blurred with the motion. Laughter flowed from the deepest places and splatters of wind and joy-filled moisture slipped from corner eye tents.

That. That is what I desire for all of us in our relationships with Jesus. Pure joy. That our great delight in Jesus would move us to unashamedly rejoice in Him. That we would be undone in His presence and unable to gaze upon His face, without crying out, “It’s too much! Jesus, You are too much! Your glory is so beautiful. Your majesty and brilliance is blinding in the best of ways.”

I long for the overflowing joy of Christ to bubble over in our souls and spill out of our very lives like thawing spring creeks dancing with delight upon still stones. Inexpressible, uncontainable, irresistible joy in King Jesus (1 Peter 1:8).

But also that the total otherness of God would move us to say with Isaiah, “Woe is me! For I am lost….for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5). And to be so overwhelmingly consumed with our Savior King being in our midst and doing His miracles in our very lives, that we would, like Peter, realize our utter unworthiness to be in His holy presence and simply fall at His feet (Luke 5:8).

And oh, to be so certain of the hope, love, and future found in Him, that we would boldly and relentlessly proclaim the excellencies of Christ (1 Peter 2:9)! That we would be anchored to something greater than us—something Jesus. That this strong, sure, unchanging anchor would give our souls, our lives, our words wings (Hebrews 6:19-20).

That all of this and so much more would lead us to greater praise of Jesus. That He—and He alone—would be the greatest gift. That our delight would be in Him. Oh to have eyes to see and love Him for who He is, and not to view him as a means to an end or as some kind of “divine baker” (Matthew Westerholm).

There is enough wonder in Christ to satisfy us for a thousand eternities. There is enough joy in Jesus to keep us smiling forever. And there is certainly enough love to be found in Him to make every other relationship appear anemic and starved compared to being in relationship with Him.

And that’s precisely what I long for, for every follower of Christ. That we would be overcome with joy in Him. That He would elicit shouts of joy from us, that tears of immense happiness would flow from our eyes, and we would be fairly dizzy at the mere mention of His name.

The blur of hard yellow and muted colors break apart. Earth and sky split into two. Wind stills. The merry-go-round stops.

But our smiles go on and on and on.