“If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.” ~Mary Oliver

Only a few days into this theme of ‘In Days to Come…..Great Joy’, and I had already begun to feel guilty. Over the first few days of Advent, I had been writing words, preparing for worship, trying to let the intention of the church’s theme get into the marrow of my bones. Just as I was settling into it, I would read the newspaper or watch to the television report. Or I would catch the eye of one of the many folks standing at an intersection on my daily drive.  In that instant, I would recognize the nagging at the pit of my stomach. How could I be ‘preaching’ joy, inviting people to stay awake to the joy that comes to them, when so much around us seems to speak to the opposite?

Then I read these words of Mary Oliver, the poet who can always say just the right words to wake me up to the Holy, wake me up to myself, wake me up to the world. It is true that devastating things happen every day, right under our noses and in far away places we will never see. Redemption……whatever that means……also is often in short supply. But love still comes to us, still enters the crevices of our days and the black holes of the universe, in ways that surprise and bring us what can only be called great joy. And on that I am willing to stake my life. Are you?

And so I have spent the last week, watching and anticipating great joy as it comes my way. I have watched our son’s enormous, black dog play in the snow, acting more like a young child who is experiencing this fluffy water for the first time, than the canine he is. I have laughed as he comes to the door with a huge, bulbous puff of white covering his nose. He looks like a distant cousin of Rudolph. I have watched as two of the babies I know best in our church community seem to be growing and discovering the world in virtual leaps and bounds. Their eyes and spirits are drinking in the unconditional love that washes over them. Yesterday, I was privileged to be present for a Christmas play staged by our youth, an original work, in which they struggled with what it means to understand and invent the Christmas story in their lives. I have eaten meals with my husband and son, talked with our son who is away at college, and laughed and felt the deep joy one has in knowing such a great love. On Sunday, I was blessed by sharing in prayer and singing with people I have known for decades and some I’ve known for only a few weeks. I sang happy birthday to a young woman I have known since she was five years old and I relished the gift of having been able to watch her life unfold. So many joys…..

For the most part, the news remains unchanged and there is much yet to be changed, saved, re-framed, salvaged, and, even redeemed. Perhaps all this will happen or perhaps it will not. But as one who has been called to sing tidings of great joy, I will continue to do my part. Since I agree that joy was not meant to be a crumb, I am doing my level best to bake a cake of it. Perhaps I will adorn that cake with candles and share that sweet light with the world.