The Sounding Joy
These things have I
spoken unto you,
that my joy might
remain in you,
and that your joy
might be full.
--
John 15:11
Merry Christmas from us and our daughters:
From left: Neely, Maddy, Eden and Jordan
Like a lot of parents do at Christmastime, I made Maddy pick
out 20 of her best toys to give away to needy kids. It's a good lesson
about sharing and sacrifice for an 8-year-old who already has a mountain of
stuff.
It was hard, but she did it. I
praised her: "Maddy, doesn't it feel great to know that kids are going to have
something under the tree who might not otherwise?"
She was staring rapturously at a
point well over my head. Her eyes were shining. Her lips curled up into an
ecstatic bow.
Ohhhh! Is she seeing a choir of heavenly
angels applauding her charity? Feeling the Christmas spirit as never before?
The joy of caring, of sharing, of giving just because your heart is overflowing
with love and peace at the coming of the Christ Child?
Nooooooo.
"I've got it!" she blurted, charity replaced by anticipation
of the next round of loot. "Santa has invisible pipes hidden in all the clouds!
That's how he finds out what kids want. There's a big speaker in the wall of
the toy room where the elves who build my toys are. You know: Snookums and
Ook."
(Snookums and Ook filled out a
questionnaire that her big sister Eden once left with Santa's milk and cookies.
That's how we know they're "our" elves.)
So she started rattling off her list
at high decibels so that the sound could travel through those invisible pipes all
the way to the North Pole:
"A laptop . . .
". . . a cell phone . . .
". . . a texting machine. . . ."
LIKE ANY OF THAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!!! BAH HUMBUG!!!
But in those shining eyes and deepening dimples, I could see
the most powerful force in the world: joy.
I can't get enough of it, this Christmas. Can you?
I heard it in the voice of a fellow whose boss is giving
$100,000 to the food bank this year. The donation is in lieu of an office
Christmas party, and in lieu of all the nice things that money could buy for
himself. Why would he give so much, and why would the employee be happy about
it, too?
Pure joy. No other reason. Is there any other, that counts?
I saw it in the face of a widow who lost her son to cancer
recently. Like a lot of people, she's facing her first Christmas "without." It
has to hurt. But she said that concentrating on being happy for her son to be
out of his pain, and in heaven with Jesus, was her way of fighting off
self-pity. If we really believe those words we sing in the Christmas songs,
then there's no reason to be sad, even about death. She found the answer:
faith. Once you have faith, you have . . .
Joy!
You know, this past year has been tougher than most among
those I love: the sudden death of an infant, several battles with cancer and
other illnesses, the searing heart-pain of divorce, the boredom of being laid
up for months by an accident, and for many, the loss or down-sizing of dreams
because of financial corruption and problems with the economy, over which we
have no control. More than a few have lost jobs and have had to put off
retirement. It looks like it's going to get worse under the incoming
Administration's taxing-and-spending plans.
So how on Earth can anybody feel any joy, with all that
going on?
Easy. You just have faith that the Christmas Child will work
it all out for our good.
And He will. Take joy! Buckle your seatbelts, and watch Him.
If you can work with Him to create those solutions, you'll feel even more joy.
In the meantime, you just remember what Christmas is all
about, and you look for it - look for Christmas - in the ones you love.
It's just one more reason we're lucky to have our
tail-ender, Maddy. She just gives me joy:
The puckered frown of agonized concentration during the
children's choir program as she struggled to remember all the words and actions
. . . replaced instantly by a radiant smile and massive theatrical confidence on
the face of our little Christmas ham, every time the CAMERA was on her, and she
was on the BIG SCREEN!!!
The to-the-ceiling shriek when she opened the letter from
"S. Claus" urging her to be good these last few days before Christmas, with the
distinctive handwriting and artwork that asserted (unsuccessfully!) that it was
NOT from her beloved and sprite-like grandfather, NoNo.
The exaggerated bow she made after her piano recital, where
she knocked out "Away in a Manger" and "We Three Kings" with panache, but
brought the house down at the reception later by demonstrating tae kwon do
moves to the sacred song "Gloria." You know:
"Glo - o - o -- o -
o - oooo - o - o - o - o - oooo - o - o - o - o - oooo - ria!
(low block, punch, punch, front kick, high block, right
knife hand, left knife hand, punch, kick)
"In excelsis Deo!"
(right square block, left square block, front kick, punch)
It was a new rendition of an old favorite. Wacky? Why not?!?
It's Christmas!
It sparked in my heart this oldie but goodie, that's my
Christmas wish for you and yours:
Joy to the world,
the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing.
Joy to the world,
the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins
and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
He rules the world
with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and remember to repeat the
sounding joy!!! †
