Our church youth leader shared a quick devotional at our youth event yesterday reminding us that the joy of the Lord is our strength. He asked us to consider how the community we share with one another makes us strong and encouraged us to find joy in the event we were at. As I reflected on his comments, I realized that I had already been blessed with joy in our gathering. One simple way was through a piece of chalk art on our parking lot.

The youth were having fun drawing on the blacktop, when several of them decided they all needed flower faces. Soon the parking lot was full of these drawings.

The group was cleaning up to prepare for a heated game of capture the flag, when one of our youth said, “Wait, Pastor Chuck needs one.” She looked at me and began to draw. She even captured my head wear when she drew my “bandanna flower face.”

There was, and is, a big smile on my face. It turns out, there is a great deal of strength to be found in joy, especially the joy that comes from God. Soon the rain will wash the drawings from the parking lot, but mark on my heart will be there for quite a while.

Pastor Chuck’s Bandanna Flower Face