Rector’s Reflection: Joy

Advent is about getting ready.

Getting ready for Christmas. 

Getting ready for God to come. 

I bet you know the Christmas story. 

So, instead of hearing it one more time, to get ready, we are going to have some meditations this Advent, some reflections on who shows up in the nativity.

 

Take a deep breath in….

…and out.

 

On the third Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of joy.

What does it mean to feel joy when there is so much wrong? It can feel wrong.

In one of the stories of the first Christmas, we remember that there were shepherds, sleeping rough, working through the night.

It says that they were visited by radiant angels bringing them “good news of great joy for all the people.”

Joy is contagious. It spread right from those angels to the shepherds, and so they went running and found a saviour. A messiah. A baby and his little family.

When they left, they went glorifying, praising, rejoicing, back to the fields, to the sheep, to sleeping rough and working through the night. And yet, everything was different.

That’s the sort of transformation that joy can bring. It can change everything.   

What fills you with joy?