Christmas Joy

Joy bubbles up with laughter at this time of year and runs through our days as a golden thread, tying together the pieces of Christmas into a beautiful quilt of love. Our laughter rings out from the songs the carolers sing to gifts brightly wrapped and placed lovingly under a Christmas tree. 

            Shepherds, angels, and wise men join to tell the story of long ago --- a story of great joy, for it was love we received that night, love all wrapped up as a newborn babe, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

  And it is joy that the angels still offer us today, along with a promise that Christ will be the healing balm of Gilead that makes the wounded whole.  And one day, perhaps even today, Christ will come again to heal the wounds of the broken hearted, for Christ is in our tears just as much as in our oohs and ahhs and laughter of a Christmas morn.

            So today we will sing with choirs of angels as we celebrate Christmas joy --- from lighting advent candles against the darkness to shopping for a family in need.  From cherubs dressed up as sheep, to elders joining in song.  In large and small ways we bring our gifts to the Christ child  Jesus who came to set us free. 

            So this Christmas join in the fa-la-la-la and drink a cup of cheer.  For unto us a child is given, unto us a Son is born.