God is ever seeking to make His children joyful.

There is a kind of joy that is course and vulgar—the kind people find in fleshly indulgence, drinking bouts, revelry, and the like. Such joys poison the springs of life, so that in the end their sweets are turned into bitterness. As Solomon said, “The end of that mirth is heaviness.”

Altogether different is the joyfulness God gives. It has no baneful effects upon the soul or the body. The gladness He gives is wholesome, rejuvenating, elevating—blessed beyond utterance.

To make us glad, God gives us Himself, so that we share His grace and love, His goodness and wisdom, the qualities and virtues that constitute the basis of every life that is truly joyful. Besides this, God gives whatever is contributory to our good and happiness. We never know how fully to appreciate and really enjoy the common goods of life unless we recognize them as gifts from God.

God is the true source of everything that makes us joyful. Until we receive Him in our hearts, we cannot be truly and perfectly glad. Apart from Him, no earthly goods and delights will suffice to settle and rejoice our hearts. Enjoyed in Him, the smallest blessing is great; without Him, the greatest is small.

We are in the habit of associating God with the sadness of life, rather than the gladness of life. It would be a wonderful thing we would learn to link with Him every pleasant thing that comes into our lives, everything that makes our hearts glad. It is true that God often seems to come nearer to us in life’s sad hours than at other times, but always He comes that He may turn our sadness into gladness.

With God ever waiting to make us joyful, it seems strange that so many of us go through life joyless and unhappy. If we would but appropriate the joys God makes available to us, we should not be living sad and mournful lives.

God wants us to be joyful. Indeed, the gladness of His children is an end contemplated in all that He does. He sent His beloved Son into the world on a joy-making mission—to show us the path that leads to happiness, to turn our mourning into rejoicing. It is a thought to dwell upon—God the joy-maker.