Great Joy

“Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the spending joy

Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy”

I was thinking this week of that well-loved carol, “Joy to the World” and in particular the refrain at the end of the verse 2 where nature is called upon to ‘repeat the sounding joy’.

I think that joy is missing in a large part from my Christmas preparations. As Christas Day draws ever nearer, the list of things that ‘need’ to be done grows longer instead of shorter. Tempers are short as we try to fit too many things into too short a time, worried that we won’t get it all done. The Christmas cards might not be delivered by the post office in a timely manner, especially with the rotating postal strikes that have been ongoing all fall! Did I choose the right Christmas gift for everyone? Did I spend too much on that gift … or maybe not enough? Will everything be perfect on Christmas Day? Then I have the memory of my childhood when my mother would wash the kitchen floor on Christmas, crying, because she was so tired. Not much joy in any of this!!

And yet one of the candles in the Advent wreath is lit for Joy. Joy is also a part of the carols that we sing and the scripture that we read which says in the vernacular if the King James Bible, "Fear not: for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." So what or where is this Joy that I’m missing this time of year? How can I begin to capture some of it?

First of all I don’t think the joy that is being spoken about is necessarily a happy/‘clappy’ sort of joy. But rather a deeper joy that is at the root of all that you do no matter how you are feeling at the moment. It is that ability to find joy in the most unlikely places, at the most unlikely times, to have that joy as the bedrock of your existence. This is the joy I think the angels are talking about in the Christmas story.

An integral part of that joy is also the ability to have fun. We need to lighten up, to be able to laugh at our own idiosyncrasies, to enjoy all of this life we have been given. After all Jesus says in John 10:10[b] “I came that they may have life, and have it more abundantly”. The ability to have fun, to enjoy the preparations for the holiday, the hustle and bustle, is important.

Just as important is to take joy in the others in our life at this time. To remember that spending time with them, being present with them, is one of the joys not only of this season but of all the year. And then never forget to acknowledge the joy that lies deep within each of us. As C.S. Lewis said, "Joy is the serious work of Heaven."

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