May Joy Be Thine

The Springtime joy be thine:---
Joy of the wind across vast spaces sweeping
And like a giant on the forest leaping;
Joy of the trees from slumber rudely shaken,
From dreams of living unto life to waken;
Joy of the little bird that flies and sings
For very rapture of it song and wings;
Joy of the stream, whose penthouse roof of snow
Muffles no more its glad, impetuous flow;
Joy of the silver showers that gleam and pass
And leave a trail of green o'er tree and grass;
Joy of the mounting sap, the bursting seed,
The joy of life from death's dominion freed;---
This joy be thine.

The Resurrection joy be thine:---
The joy of those who, weeping
Because their dead, in straitened chambers sleeping,
Have left them for a while,
Yet know, that loosed from all earth's tribulations
They have passed on to heavenly habitations,
To Life eternal and the Father's smile;
The joy of those who hear
Beyond all doubt and fear,
Through jarring echoes of discordant strife,
That one Voice sounding clear:---
"I am the resurrection and the life;
They who believe on me
From death's dark thrall I free;
I drank that bitter cup, I passed that gloomy door,
Through that lone valley I have gone before,
Because I live, they live for evermore."
This joy be thine.

-Annie Johnson Flint-
altered

John 11:25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?