A few weeks ago, my mom lost her joy. It’s such a funny sentence to say because her “joy” was a literal, delicately carved sign of the word JOY. She brings it out every Christmas, and it is one of her favorite decorations. She keeps it on a tray with a few other Christmas decorations that rest upon an ottoman in her kitchen/keeping room.

One day, after carefully removing everything from the tray to dust and then placing things back, she couldn’t find her joy. What ensued next was days of my parents ripping their house apart to find mom’s joy. I laughed about her phrases every time I asked her for an update:

“Someone stole my joy.”
“I still can’t find my joy.”
“My joy has disappeared.”
“My joy is gone.”

The whole family had a laugh about it. Multiple people came to help her look, to no avail. Joy was gone. And it was driving my mother crazy. If you’ve ever lost something, you understand that feeling.

One day I stopped by to help look. If anyone loses something, I take it as a personal challenge, so I started my search with determination. Thirty minutes later, mom’s joy was still missing. I was baffled, having felt that I would find it “hidden in plain sight” when I began the search. We sat for a minute, contemplating who stole mom’s joy when it occurred to me that maybe it was under the tray.

“There’s just no way,” my mom said as we carefully took off the tray’s items. We lifted it up and lo and behold, there was mom’s joy, nestled softly into the ottoman.

It has been such a laugh over the past few weeks, talking about how mom lost and found her joy, but it has been a beautiful illustration of how easily we can lose our true joy when faced with hard valleys. Nehemiah 8:10 states,

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Joy is a very dear thing to cling to because it is from the Lord and gives us hope during hard times. So often, our circumstances block us from seeing our joy, just like the tray. We can become convinced our joy is gone forever. But it is never gone because the Lord is always close to the brokenhearted. Our hope and joy is in Him, and He is always with us, even when our current situation makes us think otherwise.

If you are currently struggling to find your joy, I encourage you to go to God in prayer. Ask Him to stay close to you, to give you some “God winks” to show you He is there. After all, He hasn’t moved. He is always with us. Ask Him to help you find your joy and cling to it. He is faithful and will do so!