‘Tis the season of joy. Christmas! The very word evokes joy in our hearts. Despite the rush to complete gift lists, wrap presents and prepare for festivities, when Christmas Day arrives it enfolds in our hearts and homes that ageless feeling of joy we all had as children.
Joy is different from happiness in that the word “happy” comes from the same root word as “happen”: “hap.” “Hap” means chance or fate. The feeling of happiness comes from what happens to a person by chance, but joy is a source of delight. It is what lies underneath all emotions, regardless of what happens to a person or what station they find themselves in. Joy is an essential spiritual practice growing out of faith, grace, gratitude, hope, and love. It is the pure and simple delight in being alive. Joy is our elated response to feelings of happiness, experiences of pleasure, and awareness of abundance.
According to Luke, on that first Christmas, the angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds in the surrounding fields and said, “Behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” Lk 2:10 The true spirit of Christmas, then, is synonymous with birth and joy and not just for Christians but, according to the gospels, “for all people.”
For me, that’s not hard to comprehend. When I think back through my seventy years of bountiful living, nothing reaches the level of joy that I experienced with the birth and ultimate parenting of my children and grandchild. Parenthood involves sacrifice, evokes generosity, and is certainly filled with reciprocating love. When that palate is applied to anyone’s canvass of life, the result is a masterpiece of joy.
It’s been said that the guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the man. The end-product of child raising is not the child but the parent. With that in mind, it is not hard to understand why God’s plan for the salvation of the world began with the birth of a child.
In keeping with this week’s theme of joy and parenting, my choice for the final Christmas story to share with you is a sweet and uplifting story of a dad and his daughter celebrating Christmas and realizing that the best gifts we receive are those that are powered by joy.
Owed to Joy
By: Ted A. Thompson
The year our youngest daughter, Shelly, was four, she received an unusual Christmas present from “Santa.”
She was the perfect age for Christmas, able to understand the true meaning of the season, but still completely enchanted by the magic of it. Her innocent joyfulness was compelling and catching — a great gift to parents, reminding us of what Christmas should represent no matter how old we are.
The most highly prized gift Shelly received that Christmas Eve was a giant bubble-maker, a simple device of plastic and cloth the inventor promised would create huge billowing bubbles, large enough to swallow a wide-eyed four-year-old. Both Shelly and I were excited about trying it out, but it was after dark, so we’d have to wait until the next day.
Later that night I read the instruction booklet while Shelly played with some of her other new toys. The inventor of the bubble-maker had tried all types of soaps for formulating bubbles and found that Joy dishwashing detergent created the best giant bubbles. I’d have to buy some.
The next morning, I was awakened very early by small stirrings in the house. Shelly was up. I knew in my sleepy mind that Christmas Day festivities would soon begin, so I arose and made my way toward the kitchen to start the coffee. In the hallway, I met my daughter, already wide awake, the bubble-maker clutched in her chubby little hand, the magic of Christmas morning embraced in her four-year-old heart. Her eyes were shining with excitement, and she asked, “Daddy, can we make bubbles now?”
I sighed heavily and rubbed my eyes. I looked toward the window, where the sky was only beginning to lighten with the dawn. I looked toward the kitchen, where the coffeepot had yet to start dripping its aromatic reward for early rising Christmas dads.
“Shelly,” I said, my voice almost pleading and perhaps a little annoyed, “it’s too early. I haven’t even had my coffee yet.”
Her smile fell away. Immediately I felt a father’s remorse for bursting her bright Christmas bubble with what I suddenly realized was my own selfish problem, and my heart broke a little.
But I was a grown-up. I could fix this. In a flash of adult inspiration, I unshouldered the responsibility. Recalling the inventor’s recommendation of a particular brand of bubble-making detergent — which I knew we did not have in the house — I laid the blame squarely on him, pointing out gently, “Besides, you have to have Joy.”
I watched her eyes light back up as she realized, in less than an instant, that she could neutralize this small problem with the great and wonderful truth she was about to reveal.
“Oh, Daddy,” she promised, with all the honesty and enthusiasm and Christmas excitement she could possibly communicate, “Oh, Daddy, I do.”
I broke records getting to the store, and in no time at all we were out on the front lawn creating gigantic, billowing, gossamer orbs–each one filled with Joy and sent forth shimmering into the Christmas sun.
Each of us has been given a gift that is really, really precious. It’s simple. It isn’t going to get us anything. It isn’t there to augment anything. It’s there for us to be able to experience something that is within ourselves. It is not there to change our religions, our practices, our daily lives. But it is only there for one reason, for one reason alone. Simple joy.
“Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” – Nehemiah 8:10
I wish for you all a JOY-full Christmas!
William “Bill” Bacque