With my face covered in hardware and the sound of nitrous oxide being rhythmically pumped into my nostrils, I snapped this selfie just before the doctor began carving the roots out of my #19 molar. I was feeling like Darth Vader. I sent it to my wife with a love note to say "Wish you were here." To help patients relax, the nurse offers a few amenities, including a thick blanket, a comfy leather reclining chair, drugs before the surgery and your choice of any Pandora radio station. I had to go with "The Lord of the Rings" station so the doctor felt the EPIC importance of his task.
At some point as the drill was carving away and the nitrous oxide was making me feel brilliant, I heard the opening theme from "STAR WARS" being piped through the ceiling speakers and then, as if on cue, a beep indicating a text had come through. Heather responded to my selfie...
I gagged on my spit for the remainder of the procedure. It was genuinely funny even without the laughing gas. It was perfect comedic timing.
I left the doctor's office only minutes ago and now, as I'm writing about it in a coffee ship a guy just walked in with a Darth Vader shirt. Coincidence? I think not. I know exactly what this is.
A Joy Bomb.
A good friend of mine introduced me to the term "Joy Bomb". These are moments when God delivers gifts of unexpected joy in ways that only we can understand. What's absolutely beautiful about learning the Father's heart for us is that we quit attributing these joy bombs to chance, and start acknowledging God as the brilliant author of these humorous bits in our story.
It's Father and Son enjoying an inside joke. There is a mind-blowing truth that governs the universe, but which remains hidden to all who don't know to look for it:
"God knows us and loves us with perfection."
And if we have eyes to see the bombs he drops... they rescue us. His perfect love is our salvation.
Prayer
Father, dethrone the false God that has sat in your place. It has always been a humorless, rule keeping joy killer. It deserves to be taken out back and shot.
Take the throne and correct my thinking. Thank you for joy. Thank you for knowing me. Thank you for giving me eyes to finally see and ears to hear you speak to me. Become my truest Father. I ache to be your Son, and more every minute.
