Smiles to Go!

My Dad was born on May 15.  If angels smile every time a baby’s born, Heaven was beaming when Daniel Douglas Fuller arrived.  Oh yeah, they knew!  They smiled because they knew what he would become, I smile today because of what he became, and he smiles because that's who he is.  I cannot recall a time when Dad didn’t have a smile in him.  I've seen him at some pretty low points in life, but his smile eventual broke through.  If you ask him how he's doing, his response comes from deep within – and with a smile.  When Mr. Bill first met Dad, he didn't believe Dad was for-real.  Mr. Bill said he’d never known anyone who smiles that much, but it didn't take long till he learned Dad's joy was genuine.  Of course, when Mr. Bill got to know the rest of us, he was even more amazed Dad could smile!

What is genuine joy?  Genuine joy isn’t superficial, nor defined by circumstances or else we’d lose it over and over.  Real joy, sourced in Christ Jesus, is the tap root of Dad's continuous and contagious smile.  It searches out each situation for its [otherwise] lost counterpart.  Joyless circumstances simply don’t exist; rather, we allow them to overcome us and our joy momentarily losing it.  Paul said, "You have made known to me the paths of life; You will fill me with joy in Your Presence." (Acts 2:28).  The promise of God is to always "fill me with joy" – joy from Well of Joy -- the Spring of Abundance within each Believer.  There’s where the endless smiles come from!

I'm so thankful for my Dad; his influence on my life cannot be measured. The thought of his smiles often sustains me.  I’m most grateful to my Heavenly Father that he has placed within me The Source of all Joy, which gives me full confidence I too can influence others to for joyful living in Him.  Oh, wonderful, marvelous joy for the journey ... and many, many smiles to go!