Fourth Sunday of Advent: The Joy Candle.

 Be joyful in hope! (Romans 12:12)

“Joy”, like our other Advent words “Hope” and “Love” and “Peace,” comes to us as a gift. We can’t conjure up joy. It comes from God’s side. You have to wait for it to sneak up on you. For me, it happens most often when we gather to “sing praises to our Lord,” and “burst into joyful song” (Psalm 98:4-8).

That’s the greatest loss Covid-19 has brought our way. It’s been hard for the scattered to gather and sing their robust songs of joyful praise. I’m thinking of Isaac Watts’ hymn “Joy to the World”:

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.

A few things struck me this time around: 1) such a joyful song requires some gusto; and, 2) nature is in on it—nature sings and earth rejoices. When we think of the Eternal, we don’t think less of this temporal earth, but more. Nature is in on it: “Creation itself will be set free” (Ro 8:21). That’s why we await a “new earth” (2Pt 3:13). We are not ourselves without earth around.