How often do we postpone happiness, believing it waits on the other side of something changing? A problem resolved, a longing fulfilled, a future made certain. We imagine that when life finally arranges itself to our liking, joy will arrive.

Yet today's lesson invites us to recognize a happiness that has never depended upon circumstances.

God has already given us what we seek. The invitation is not to make ourselves happy, but to become willing to see through the eyes of Christ, releasing the judgments and expectations that obscure the peace already present.

This doesn't mean denying sorrow or pretending that life's difficulties aren't real to us. It means remembering that beneath our changing experiences, something remains untouched: the love in which we were created.

There is a gentle freedom in realizing that we need not wait for tomorrow, repair yesterday, or rearrange today before receiving God's gifts.

And perhaps joy becomes even more recognizable when we share it. One voice remembers, another joins, and what seemed like a private discovery becomes a celebration of our shared inheritance.

My present happiness is all I see.

Not because everything has changed, but because I am willing to see differently.