Joy In My Heart To Stay

Dec 18, 2021

I’m sitting on an airplane at Midway airport in Chicago awaiting my flight to depart for home.

I’ve spent the last three days in Goshen, Indiana, visiting my family. Being home evokes a feeling of warmth remembering days gone by. The cornfields are plowed, the silos are full and the smell of burning leaves fills the air! I’d hoped to experience the feeling of fluffy white snowflakes melting on my tongue and the magic of childhood Christmases long ago. But instead, I was gifted blinding, freezing rain mixed with memories of how much has changed. “No place like home for the holidays” rings empty while the only home my mom now knows is the nursing home. My eyes are stinging with moist tears.

I love the simplicity of childhood, feeling that all is well and there is peace on earth at Christmas! With each birthday, we lose the childhood excitement and joy of celebrating Jesus’ birth.

I may just be nostalgic, but as we complete the third week of Advent - the good news of great JOY - I'm reminded how often we confuse joy with happiness!

How can we be happy when we’re having surgery for cancer the week before Christmas? Or we’ve lost a loved one and everyone we encounter is laughing and holding hands? How can we smile when we just received the notice that our company is closing its doors? Why does it feel like this season accentuates our pain, disappointments and losses

Friends, happiness is fleeting. It comes and goes based on what is happening. But JOY is the deep abiding peace, the feeling that all is well, sometimes in the midst of great pain, disappointment and loss.

I Thessalonians 5:16-18 reminds us:

Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

How can we be joyful always?

Pray continually. Not just in the morning, at mealtime or at bedtime. A posture of prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit, consciously and constantly aware of His presence. His presence in traffic, in a difficult conversation, when we’re tempted to embellish the story or ignore our child begging for attention while we’re scrolling through tik-tok videos.

Give thanks in ALL circumstances. Romans 8:28 says:

All things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes.

Not just “happy” things, but ALL things! Maybe you can’t see it right now, but you will. I know.

And when you look back and see that God worked in your circumstances for good, you’ll know that deep, abiding joy.

The “joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart to stay” kind of joy that children sing about! The Bible says:

I will strengthen you, I will help you. (Isaiah 41:10)

I will counsel you with my eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)

I will never leave you nor forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5)

I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

I am with you always. (Matthew 28:20)

For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great JOY for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

- Luke 2:8-11

Friends, I pray you have JOY this week as you remember that Jesus came as a baby with His eye on the cross. We are IN Christ Jesus and He is IN us because He died for us, rose again and we have a JOY filled future in store!

In just a few weeks, our children and grandchildren will be seated around the nativity, and Ken will read Luke 2. It won’t be perfect. With cancer and congestive heart failure in our immediate family, I never take these moments for granted. I’ll pause, look around the room with such JOY, and drink in the moment together and hold it in my heart.