Joy to the World
a story by Alicia Villarreal
There is no joy equivalent to a room of people preparing to go out and carol. I dart through the crowd of merry adults, on a hunt for the kid friendly eggnog. A loud voice from the front of the house announces that it’s time to leave, time to sing for people! Someone hands me a battered booklet of carol lyrics, with new additions stapled onto the old, and the roomfulls of choir singers and their families bundle up to head out into the winter chill. It’s December in New Jersey, and snow crunches beneath my boots. I shake my ankle to make the jingle bells ring and to warm myself up. We get to the first house, and as the family opens the door my dad hoists me up onto his shoulders so that I can see, and then we sing! Everyone is singing! I watch the faces of the family in the doorway go from surprised, to delighted, and then they’re singing too!
We didn’t have to practice, and no one is listening to critique, and everyone is glad that everyone else is here. No one is worried their voice isn’t strong enough, or good enough, and every song is familiar and filled with the warmth of hundreds of Christmases past.
Every year I bring out these familiar songs, I feel the warmth of my first church family wrapped around me, and every church family since. I remember that no matter how hard things get, every year Christmas still comes. Every year Jesus is born, every year humans look out into the coldest and longest nights and participate in the happiest of traditions: holding the dark at bay and ushering in the light through song.
Today I invite you to gather your people, knock on a neighbor’s door, and share a song with them. Here’s the word’s to “Joy to the World!” to get you started, let Heaven and Nature Sing!
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!
Scripture: Luke 2:13-14
Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”
Prayer
Almighty God, may we have the courage to lift up our voices in song and our hearts with joy to prepare room for the coming Christ. Amen.
