“When they saw the star, they were filled with joy!” (Matthew 2:10)
As I sat in the home of a friend who was dying, I doubted very much if he would make it until Christmas. Becoming engaged in conversation with his spouse as he went in and out of consciousness, I learned that his brother was also terminally ill. Here is a family soon to be filled with sorrow. On my prayer list, there are at least a dozen families who will be going through their first Christmas without a loved one. The Christmas season has become a difficult time for many in our society, prompting one to ask the question – Is sorrow more plentiful at this time of year, or are we just more conscious of it? According to the National Institute of Health, during Christmas people experience a high incidence of depression. For those of us who don’t have these difficulties at present, it certainly provides an opportunity to reach out. Those who do so will discover that “Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of people, but from doing something worthwhile” (Wilfred T. Grenfell).
One would think that joy and sorrow are polar opposites. However, it seems more like they are close-knit companions with one taking dominance over the other. Just as we can’t appreciate the light if we haven’t spent time in the dark, joy and sorrow are much the same way. One thing is true – each of us has those days and moments when we must look a little harder to see the joy scattered within our sorrow. But joy is there, and we nearly always find it again. We just need to know where to look. Ultimately, we may learn that it is impossible to know joy unless we go through periods of sorrow. Whenever we seek God’s direction during our suffering – we often see Him more clearly, and our joy is made full. Consider this thought from Philip Bernstein: “We have no right to ask, when sorrow comes, ‘why did this happen to me?’ unless we ask the same question for every joy that comes our way.”
This story is told in a 1980 excerpt Our Daily Bread: Many years ago, a Salvation Army officer was preaching in Chicago when a man spoke out in front of the crowd, “You can talk about how Christ is dear to you, but if your wife were dead, as my wife is, and you had babies crying for their mother, you couldn’t say what you are saying.” A few days later, that preacher’s wife was killed in a tragic train accident. At the funeral service, the grieving husband stood beside her casket and said, “The other day when I was preaching in this city, a man said that if my wife were dead and my children were crying for their mother, I couldn’t say that Christ was sufficient. If that man is here, I tell him that Christ is sufficient! My heart is crushed, bleeding, and broken. But there is also a song in my heart and Christ put it there. The Savior speaks comfort to me today.” The man who had raised the objection was present, and he surrendered his life to Christ.
“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:10-11). The angels delivered the best possible news. For we who trust that Jesus holds our future and for those who have died in the Lord, His birth will always be ‘good news’. Late in His ministry when His time had come, Jesus told His disciples that He would turn their sorrow into joy. By using the analogy of a woman in labor, He said: “she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world” (John 16:21). The Apostle Paul reflected a similar message when he stated, “Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later” (Romans 8:18). The Messiah also needed first to suffer and then enter His glory for the sake of His kingdom. By doing so He prepared a place for each of us – a place where pain and sorrow is relieved and only joy remains for all of eternity. If you believe that, you have captured a true understanding of why love came down at Christmas. Like the Magi, we too should be filled with joy every time we think of that star over Bethlehem (Matthew 2:9-11).
REFLECTION: Think of a time when you experienced great sorrow and then found renewed joy. If you were asked to define Biblical Joy to someone, what would you say? How can you help someone this Christmas begin to search for joy in the midst of their sorrow?
A NEW LOOKUP DEVOTION IS UPLOADED EACH WEEK. THE NEXT WEEKLY POSTING WILL BE ON SAT., DECEMBER 24, 2016. COMMENTS ARE WELCOMED.