It’s Wednesday. And it's a Wednesday of Wednesdays. A few days past the first day of Christmas.
Coffee alone won’t pick me up. These days between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve can feel a bit like an emotional hangover.
I need a song of Joy.
A hymn of Joy.
Joyful joyful…
“All Your works with joy surround You,
Earth and heav'n reflect Your rays…”
A few weeks ago when I reached the ridge and then the summit of North Baldy, I just cracked up with joy. The breath-taking views of the San Gabriels, the summit blanketed in sheets of icy-snow, the deep majestic blue hues…it was all just too much. I just laughed. Earth and heaven reflect and are crammed with God’s joy. All of creation bursts with joy and beauty. I couldn’t help but hum this carol.
“Field and forest, vale and mountain, flowery meadow, flashing sea
Chanting bird and flowing fountain praising You eternally!”
Hymnologist (yes that’s a job) Albert Bailey writes that in this carol we witness that creation itself cannot conceal but reveals God’s joy. Everywhere we look in nature (be it a hike up a mountain, a stroll in your neighborhood, or wheel chairing around a lake) is filled with joy, a joy caused by our recognition of God as giver and creator.
And if all of creation reveals God’s joy, then guess what?
That includes you. And me.
Scripture even tells us that you are God’s delight.
So yes, somedays are Wednesdays. Sometimes we find ourselves between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. Sometimes life is full of strife. But nature is calling. The stars are beginning a chorus, the song tells us. We sing and we march. We join hands in a mighty chorus. We are “ever blessing, ever blest.”
So go on, hum the tune from Beethoven’s 9th and sing Henry Van Dyke’s words:
“Mortals join the mighty chorus, which the morning stars began; God’s own love is reigning over us, joining people hand in hand. Ever singing, march we onward, victors in the midst of strife; joyful music leads us sunward in the triumph song of life.”