On my desk, I have a cut-glass vase housing bright yellow daffodils and two small but pungent purple hyacinths. All from my garden, which suddenly came into bloom during a warm spell last week.

A few days of warm weather (along with plenty of rain) turned the grass from faded yellow to bright green, pushed the bulbs I planted last fall to bloom, and brought all of us out into the sun to play.

Play may not seem like a spiritual practice, but it is an essential one, if we are to obey the commands of Scripture: Rejoice in the Lord always! The joy of the Lord is your strength!

"Joy is God's basic character," John Ortberg writes. "Joy is his eternal destiny. God is the happiest being in the universe. … As products of God's creation, creatures made in his image, we are to reflect God's fierce joy in life."

How? I think joy is cultivated by engaging in good, clean, fun—the practice of celebration.

Deuteronomy 16 spells out the various feasts and celebrations that the nation of Israel ...