Monday, December 25, 2023  

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Today’s Hymn

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 earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all 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.

Isaac Watts’s “Joy to the World”
from Glory to God: The Presbyterian Hymnal

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Reflection

Have you ever been caught off guard by splendor? Yes, caught completely and unthinkingly in such a moment? I suspect you have. Maybe your arms held the miracle of the grandboy, the one the family had tried for years to conceive and then completely unexpectedly he was conceived and born, a healthy little guy. You look into his scrunched-up little face, hold him as you would a feather, light little. And tears leap to your eyes, as you coo, you light up, and your heart beats in rhythm with his little breath. Yes, you are caught off guard with splendor, with joy.

Or maybe it is the candles at the Christmas Eve service. Real candles that we have to remember to tip our unlit one toward. And in the darkened sanctuary, with the smell of pine and wax and a little alcohol on your uncle’s breath from the early dinner, your auntie’s too, your eyes light upon the candles, the glow, the moment when the whole place seems to be holding its breath. And then the sanctuary lights come up and the organ begins its swell ... joy, joy, joy to this world. Caught off guard this night, this morning, this day, with joy.

Isaac Watts, the person who penned “Joy to the World,” did not necessarily think it was a Christmas carol or hymn. He based the words on a psalm, praising the “Lord” who had come, who brought joy in his inauguration. But the age-old message washes over us with joy this day, when we so long for and relish joy in our oft-dreary world. Yes, in that grandboy, grandgirl; that candlelight; this day when we reach for this one who was born long ago and miraculously this day! May the dawn’s light permeate your heart — preparing room for the child, Jesus, to come to you, to yours, catching you off guard with splendor, with startling joy.

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Prayer
Holy and joyful Child of Wonder, Jesus, may our hearts prepare to receive you this day. Catch us up in the joy of your coming; may we sing this song of joy through our lives, this day and always. Amen.

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Written by Lucy Forster-Smith, Senior Associate Pastor

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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