Joy
My left arm doesn’t work. No seriously, it’s just dead weight. I can’t do anything with it. It just hangs there. Somehow my fingers still move. For quite awhile I could only feel a couple of them. In order to type I have to pick my left arm up with my right hand and put my arm where I want it to be. I am thankful my shoulder has not really started hurting yet, but this nerve block sure makes life more complicated. I can feel things that won’t move and I can move things I can’t feel. Having a numb arm is strange and difficult. I think most people would agree that surgery does not usually make us happy. Even if we understand the long-term benefit, recovering from surgery is not pleasant. Life is full of moments like this, when it is hard to be happy.
Thankfully, our joy is not dependent on our circumstantial happiness. This week has been hard, but I have joy in my heart. When I look at the nativity on my coffee table, I see a little bundle of joy who came into the world like all of us. The joy of the whole world came to us as a baby through the extreme pain of birth. Pain does not separate us from joy. Sadness does not separate us from joy. Nothing in the world can separate us from joy because our joy comes from Jesus. We don’t have to generate joy; we can simply receive it.
“Nothing in the world can separate us from joy because our joy comes from Jesus. We don’t have to generate joy; we can simply receive it.”
“If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.” - John 15:10-11 NRSV
As I anticipate the birth of Jesus, I anticipate receiving joy. I anticipate the Spirit stirring my heart and filling me with the goodness of God. I am ready to rest in the presence of God. I am ready to experience the fullness of joy that can only come from Jesus. Come, Lord Jesus, come!