¹⁰When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. ¹¹I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 

John 15:10-11

These verses play on repeat in my mind. I am what I attach to and my attachments determine my outlook. Jesus gives quite a promise in these words. Let’s review to reinforce the truth.

Jesus loves me with the same intensity that Father loves him. Because Jesus is attached to Father, he obeys his commands. Attachment results in obedience. When I attach to Jesus, I live in obedience and obedience brings deeper attachment resulting in deeper relationship. The end result? Overflowing joy!

⁵But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Listen to him.” 

Matthew 17:5

Jesus’ obedience to Father resulted in great joy. I believe our attachment and subsequent obedience brings great joy to Father as well.

I have only to look at my granddaughters for a living example of this principle at work. I love them with an intensity I cannot describe. They fill me with joy as I watch them learn, grow and develop. My love for them also fills them with joy. I can see it in their faces. The other day I was holding one of the girls and she was playing with something. Every few minutes she would pause and lean into me to snuggle and then sit up and resume playing. It was an act of sheer adoration. A few days later, Dave and I were sitting on either side of our oldest granddaughter watching a few minutes of a movie. She was all snuggled between us when I saw her look around the room at her parents and her grandparents and I heard her quiet little voice whisper, “This is my family!” Oh, the joy that filled my heart as I observed the intense loving attachment she experiences.

This is exactly what Jesus offers. Deep love that results in overflowing joy. The desire to sit quietly and snuggle into his arms knowing that “this is my family!”