Jumping for Joy

Growing Daily

Jumping for Joy

Vacationing in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, we’ve often seen dolphins swim by the beach. They glide through the water, rising and falling in a beautiful natural rhythm. But what creates that graceful movement is something surprising: dolphins breathe air.

They must regularly rise above the water’s surface to breathe before returning to their world. The thing that sustains their lives comes from beyond the environment in which they spend most of their time.

It reminds me that while Christians live in this world, we’re sustained by something beyond it. It’s in Christ that we “live and move” (Acts 17:28), sustained “by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). Prayer, worship, and Scripture are how we draw spiritual breath. When we regularly lift our hearts toward Him, we find renewed strength and joy to move through our world with grace.

One day we saw an unusual sight: a dolphin bursting completely from the water, repeatedly leaping into the air. It seemed delighted to leave its world and revel in the air.  It was an encouragement to me to revel in the life God gives. To take the time to enjoy His sustaining presence. The more I delight myself in Him, the more my life will reflect a joy and freedom that this world cannot explain.

"In your presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11).


- Catherine Reid