The Gift of Joy

This past week, I ran across two letters written by children to Santa. The first said, “Dear Santa, there are three little boys who live at our house. There is Jeffrey; he is two. There is David; he is four. And there is Norman; he is seven. Jeffrey is good some of the time. David is good some of the time. But Norman is good all of the time. I am Norman.”


The second one read, “Dear Santa, you did not bring me anything good last year. You did not bring me anything good the year before that. This is your last chance. Signed, Alfred.”


Patience is not an easy virtue when we are expecting something really exciting, is it? At Christmas, most of us are longing for something that we feel we don't have. And most of would secretly say, "If I only had...I would be happy." We are in search of the elusive quality of joy. Far to many of us have misplaced the merry in our Christmas.

Our focus this week is the gift of joy. In Isaiah 61:1-3, Isaiah looks prophetically to a time when glad tidings of great joy will be shared with the sad, broken-hearted, and discouraged. “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,  to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion -- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair….”


This is a prophetic promise of joy. The year of the Lord was the celebration of jubilee. The garment of praise will replace the spirit of despair, the oil of gladness with replace mourning. The Israelites are about to be overcome, led into captivity, and spend years in oppression by the invading armies of Babylon. Yet God gives them a powerful promise of something good to come. It reminds me of a story about a woman who, at the last moment, frantically bought a box of 50 identical Christmas cards so she could get them in the mail on time. She hastily opened each card and signed her name without bothering to read what was printed inside. Several days after they had been mailed, she came across one leftover card and discovered to her dismay that the inside had these words: “This card is just to say, a special gift is on the way.”


This passage from Isaiah is fulfilled in the Christmas story. Jesus Himself says that this passage refers to Him (Luke 4:18). Isaiah prophecy was a Christmas card to all people, to us that a special gift is on the way...the oil of gladness, the garment of praise, comfort for those who mourn.