“Don’t Worry, be Happy!” by Maria Allen, Fiat Ventures
Third Sunday of Advent
Have you ever been exceedingly happy in your life? Like truly happy? Like can’t stop smiling happy? Can’t stop laughing happy? I want you to imagine that time. Imagine that time in your life where you were simply filled with such tremendous joy, a joy that you almost cannot contain.
You got it? Now imagine that it was possible for us to box up that joy, to package it in some way. And it is going to be delivered to you – you ordered it and Amazon is delivering it in less than two days. How would you feel? How would you wait in expectant hope for that box of exquisite joy to come to you?
Maybe you’ve had a tough year so far. Maybe you’ve struggled in so many ways. Maybe your year has been filled with hurt and pain. Maybe it hasn’t been that bad. Maybe you’re doing ok. Maybe you’re actually bored with life, nothing is really going on. Maybe too much is going on. Whatever the case may be, if you knew that this box, this box of joy, was coming, and if you knew how it could change your life for the better, if you knew that it could potentially transform your life to one of everlasting happiness and joy –how you would wait for that box. More than any other Christmas present that you are expecting, how you would wait in expectant hope for that box of joy.
But what if that extreme amount of joy didn’t come in a box?
What if it came in a person?
And indeed, it does. “Those whom the Lord has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.” CROWNED WITH EVERLASTING JOY! I don’t know about you, but I would so love to live in everlasting joy. My heart is happy just thinking about it.
And this joy comes to us in the form of a person, it comes to us at Christmas as we celebrate the birth of a tiny baby who is God – the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.
This is what we wait for. This is what we expect and hope for. This is our joy.
“Say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God…he comes to save you.”
He, the all-powerful, almighty, all-knowing, all-loving, everlasting God, has come to save me. He has come to save you. In our readings we hear of how “the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the mute will sing.” Our afflictions will be healed – we will be healed – made new by our God. In the Gospel, this has already begun, Jesus has already begun spreading his healing and love. How much more He continues to do so and will do for us.
This my friends, is why we wait in joyful, expectant hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ, the one who crowns us in that everlasting joy. And so I say, “Rejoice! For the Lord has come to save us!” Again, I say, “Rejoice and be glad! For our God loves us!” Again, I say, “Rejoice!”