"Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you…!” (Zech 9:9) Our King is coming, and soon we will be singing “Joy to the world!” and “Repeat the sounding joy!” and “A thrill of hope; the weary world rejoices!” ”Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we”, indeed. Our Christmas songs sing of the “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” announced by angels at Jesus’ birth. But our Advent songs, too, speak of *anticipating* that joy, of rejoicing even now with the knowing what will come: Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus speaks of the “joy of every longing heart”, and O Come O Come Emmanuel echoes this Zechariah 9 passage with “Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” We probably usually think of the “ache” of longing before the “joy” of longing. How is this season of Advent inviting you to experiment with letting joy have its say even when you are still in the time of waiting?

Posted by Jamie Bonilla at 2020-12-18 14:56:57 UTC