Cling to Joy


 

I have enjoyed the amazing and brilliant holiday displays that have adorned the yards in my neighborhood this year. They were all such a gift. Some were funny, some touching. Some were huge, some small. Some elaborate, some simple. But of them all, this is the one I will carry in my heart into 2021.
Just a word, and a simple one at that. One syllable, nothing more. Joy. What a powerful word! Just the sight of those three letters sets our hearts racing with memories that define the best days of our lives. Childhood and simpler times are evoked. Milestones such as graduations and the birth of children rise to the surface of our minds. Experiences such as falling in love and finding our calling in life are so real again we can almost feel the anxiousness and awkwardness of the moment, even though many years have passed. Joy.
We have just sung the hymn, “Joy to the World”. What a glorious thought! Joy to all. Joy to all, all at once. As we once again rehearsed the story of the birth of Jesus, we placed joy in the midst of the real world with all of its hardship and burdens. Mary snd Joseph traveling as strangers in a strange place. No room for a woman on the brink of child birth. Taxes owed by people poor in things. A brutal, unhinged political leader with no regard for life other than their own. The vulnerability of a newborn baby in a cave full of animals. It is in the midst of all of this that joy became visible.
The brilliant Jesuit priest and philosopher, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, writes that, “Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.” God is in those best moments of ours, and it is not much of a challenge to know it. But the true power of joy is known in the hard realities of our life. That is at the heart of the season to which we soon bid adieu. The gift is Emmanuel, God with us always and everywhere. Period.
Scripture puts it like this, “Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!” I am thinking of those in my circle who need to find their strength today and in the days ahead, who need to know in a powerful way the presence of God with them.
Joy. I will cling to joy and share as much joy as I possibly can. I know how much I need it, how much I long to know it’s power in my life. I will continue to sing “Joy to the World” well into the new year.
Peace.

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