Christmas Joy
By Tom Gilbreath
We sometimes say, “Christmas song,” but we rarely say, “Christmas hymn.” Instead, we say “Christmas carol.” Have you ever wondered why? Merriam-Webster.com includes this definition of a carol. “A popular song or ballad of religious joy.” Carol can also be used as a verb, meaning “to praise in or as if in song.”
Carols are about joy and praise, so it makes sense that Christmas is the season of carols. Joy surges through every part of Christmas. Lights and other decorations, giving gifts, and singing carols all express joy and celebration. This extends to many non-carols like “White Christmas” or even “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.”
Before the first Christmas, God sent the angel Gabriel to “a city of Galilee named Nazareth.” The angel brought a world-shattering message to a young woman there. He called her, “highly favored,” but the quality of his presence and the strange manner of his greeting frightened her. He said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.” The name Jesus means, “Yahweh saves.”
Gabriel told Mary that her Child would “reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” This is big news because, to accomplish those words, this Child would one day have to conquer death. Verse 37 explains, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
In the sky over Bethlehem on the night of the Lord’s birth, angels sang a most precious Christmas carol. “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” That song in Luke 2:14 looks all the way from the Baby in the Manger to the Man on the cross, the empty tomb, His ascension, His return, His millennial reign, and the eternal state to follow.
The angels sang it as fact, as a done deal, even though we have not yet seen the full manifestation of “peace on earth.” The world remains turbulent with war, threat, anguish, sorrow, and pain. But eternal joy and peace are a done deal because God’s promises cannot fail. He formed the universe by speaking words. In Isaiah 55:11, He said, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please.”
That's why we sometimes refer to Bible prophecy as history prewritten. It will happen as He has said it will happen. Yet the prophecy of “peace” is not limited to the future. It’s true now for all who receive it. Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”
In Him we find the fulfillment of Isaiah 26:3, “You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You.” That is not to say that everything in this world will be easy. In John 16:33, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
In a foxhole during a firefight, or agonizing in a hospital’s intensive care unit, or in hospice care with the end in sight — all may not seem peaceful. These things are tribulation. But even when outer calm is not possible, Jesus offers this wonderful thing called “perfect peace.”
No matter what you face this Christmas — painful or happy, calm or turbulent — may the joy and peace of Jesus fill your life.
Merry Christmas!
