Joy to the World, The Lord is Come!
Christmas cards shout out joy, over and over as we open glitter-silver cards of the season. Choirs sing out joy in four-part harmony, and carolers still wander through neighborhoods, singing of a joy that seems to sit uneasily on the shoulders of a season, breathing quiet.
This joy? This tinsel-joy, blowing silent in a cold winter snow? It’s sad, this tinsel-joy. For once the date rolls to December 26, this joy gets balled up and tossed out, like discarded wrapping paper and ribbons and bows. It dries up like poinsettias cooped up too long on dry dining room tables and living room shelves, dropping shriveled and brown. This tinsel-joy evaporates with Christmas-cookie smells of vanilla and cinnamon, and all that’s left is the hopelessness and despair that dripped constant before the Christmas rush poured in.
But true joy? That deep-in-my-bones joy that was shouted out loud and clear by the very first Christmas Choir, wings unfurled, large and bright over shepherds quivering on a still night? That joy? That joy was ushered in by a small baby, and for those who beheld that Babe on the straw-filled feeding trough; who followed Him long on dusty roads, who follow Him sure into this day - our joy is planted in us so deep and sure and strong, it does not wither, but remains constant and true, through each day - no matter the season, no matter the place. It just won’t be thrown away. It can’t.
You see, my joy? This bone-deep joy? It’s not just for a season, but for a lifetime, an eternity. My joy springs from the knowledge that His birth brought not 33 years of good teaching and good works, but an eternity of salvation. My salvation! And because of this, I am joyful! In all things, I rejoice. Re-joy, joy again, and again and again! Joy does not come from the world, or things, or people, or my circumstances. Joy is the praise of God on my lips. Joy is the flow of love from His heart to me, to you, to a broken world. Joy is my conscious and forever understanding of His love, of His provision in all things.
My joy springs from the understanding that God Alone is my strength. Joy is the fuel of my heart to love Him above all things, in all ways, at all times. Joy is what causes me to rise in the morning, no matter the day. Joy is what gives me peace to lay my head down at night, praises pouring forth for His glory and love. For me - for all Christians - joy is just as legitimate in famine as in feast, for God transcends what I can see or feel or hear or understand. Since God is above all things, my joy remains steadfast, fired by His love for me, and through me, and always with me.
At Christmas, we sing “Joy to the World”, and yet we really don’t understand joy. Joy is not being happy, for happiness is circumstantial, dependent on what goes on around us. Joy is not circumstantial, but other-world, arising from the ashes of God’s sacrifice for us. Joy arises unbidden on the lips of those who love Him Who came. Joy is a gift from my Savior, and in all things, I’ll rejoice in Him. Joy is the blessed assurance of His love, no matter what, no matter when.
No circumstance will change my joy; no thing or person can steal my joy. My joy is based upon the Everlasting One who is above all and who conquers all - every enemy, every illness, every disease. My joy blossoms forth regardless of what is in my life for it is above my life. My joy flows from the love of the Eternal One, the One Who Inhabits Eternity - HE is my God, and in Him there is no equal. Therefore, why not rejoice? My Savior is born, and is here to save me.
Christmas is a time to remember that I have an inheritance of joy; a legacy that cannot be stolen, that cannot be dimmed, that can never be exhausted. The joy that I get from Him is unending, overflowing, abundant, eternal. No one can take away my joy. No thing will steal my joy, for God is the Eternal Provider of my joy, and joy is mine forever.
Yes! Joy to the world, the Lord is come!