After Communion recently the words of a simple hymn were poignant for me: “I received the Living God, and my heart is filled with joy.”

A simple truth of our faith had struck me again. In receiving Communion, I just received God, the Eternal, who made all things.

Within my small, feeble and flawed being, I just had the privilege to hold Jesus!

In this life, we cannot see Him as He once appeared in Galilee over 2,000 years ago. Nonetheless, we see and touch Him no less truly than the Apostles did. Isn’t that amazing?

When I receive Jesus in Holy Communion, I can embrace Him, tell Him I love Him, and plead with Him for the needs that are on my heart.

At this amazing, yet daily, privilege, why shouldn’t my poor heart be “filled with joy,” as the hymn says?