December 13th, 2024

The Christmas season brings forth many emotions, but surely the one that stands near the top of the list is the emotion of joy.  As the angel said to the shepherds on that starry night in a field outside of Bethlehem, “Behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ, the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).  The birth of Jesus intends to evoke great joy because of how it conveys God’s presence with us in every circumstance of life.

I don’t know of another truth people today could benefit from than this one. All around are folk who have a void in their lives that they try to fill with things that bring them no joy.  What they would do well to understand is that lasting joy can only occur when people choose to embrace the gift of God’s abiding presence so that they experience it even in the bleakest of situations – an alarming health diagnosis that calls tomorrow into question, a volatile economy that doesn’t seem to be working anymore, another hurricane rebuild we don’t know we have the strength to undertake.  I have seen people claim God’s joy in such places, as have you, and I never cease to be amazed at how that joy sustains them and sees them through their challenging times.

As we move into the Advent season, a season of preparation for Christmas, I trust that you will make the choice of joy by opening your soul to the reality of God’s Presence that has come to us through the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem.  My prayer is that you will avail yourself of the many opportunities we have in this season of the year to enter into the Presence of God and allow your spirit to be lifted by the good news of Immanuel, “God with us.”  

I remember a small church near my house in Birmingham that would occasionally put out little signs in their church yard that carried inspiring phrases.  One that caught my attention one Advent season said, “Enter Into Joy.”  I thought that was the right way to phrase it.  Because joy is tied to the Presence of God and because it is also a choice one makes to embrace, I don’t know of a better way to phrase the opportunity than to offer it as an invitation.  At the end of the day, joy is not anything you can define or analyze; joy is something into which you simply choose to enter.
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So, I invite you to do so even now, at the beginning of this most special season of Advent.  For only then will the joy of Jesus be in you, and only then will your joy be made complete.