Scriptures and Hymns to Grow Your Joy This ChristmasSample

Week 4: Adore the Christ’s birth

READ: John 1:14

LISTEN: “O Come, All Ye Faithful”

REFLECT:

A distinction is commonly made between a Christian’s joy and happiness — that joy isn’t based on circumstances but on God (see the first week’s reflection), whereas happiness shifts with each small life change. But it’s not an entirely accurate delineation, because there is one crucial moment in history on which every Christian’s joy depends: Jesus’ life, from His birth to His death and resurrection. As The Message translation puts John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” God inhabiting our world is an event that transforms all our grounds for joy. That’s why the lines of “O Come, All Ye Faithful” call God’s people “joyful and triumphant” as we behold Him.

The kind of adoration that this hymn and this verse calls us to isn’t passive, much like joy isn’t just positive feelings. The admiration in mind is active — “Come and behold Him” — and hospitable in the fullest sense. We make room for the miraculous in our lives as we realize the wonder of “the King of angels” coming to us as a child. Contemplating God’s glory revealed in the birth of Jesus, we are moved to choose the joy this beautiful Savior offers. We’re basing our joy not on an earth-bound circumstance, but on the fact that the Creator of the universe willingly bound Himself to earth as a helpless infant — to restore all of creation to Himself.

Amid the busyness of the Christmas season, where can you make room to contemplate the wonder of Jesus’ birth?