One evening I ran into the cleaners to pick up my shirts. They had told me they would be ready, but now they couldn’t find them. They began searching and I stood there thinking, "This is great. Every dress shirt I own is at the cleaners - except for the one I’m wearing."

While I was waiting for them to find my shirts, a woman walked in carrying an old laundry basket. Inside the laundry basket, lying on a green towel were five little puppies. They were about five or six weeks old - cute little balls of brown, playful fur.

While we were admiring the puppies, a boy about eight or nine years old walked through the door. He had a big smile on his face as he looked at all of the puppies in that laundry basket. He looked up at the woman and asked, "What kind are they?"

The woman replied, "They are Yorkshire Terriers. They don’t get much larger than this."

The boy just kept looking and smiling at those puppies. The woman picked one up and asked him, "Would you like to hold this one?"

A simple look at the boy’s face and we knew it was a silly question. Very carefully, he cuddled the puppy in one hand, stroked the puppy’s head with his other hand, held the puppy close and softly talked to him.

As I looked around the room, each one of us - the five or six customers and the clerk - was smiling. In that moment, there was joy in our hearts and lives as we watched that little boy cuddle the puppy.

As we move through each Christmas season, we are aware that joy came into this world for more than a moment. Joy came into this world to stay in the birth of the child of Bethlehem. There is no other religion in the world that presents its God as a helpless baby. You want your God to be king ... You want your God to be large ... You want your God to be in control of everything. That is the picture we had of God until that night long ago in Bethlehem. On that night, the God of all creation deemed it proper to send his Son to walk among us. A Madison Avenue promoter would undoubtedly have made a big deal of it, with the baby born of a queen and the father a king. But, God is much more resourceful ... much more sophisticated ... much more artistic. He had his Son born of a simple peasant girl.

And the place of the Baby’s birth wasn’t in a big palace. It was in a stable where the cattle and other animals looked on. Everyone loves a baby and there is a certain joy which fills our hearts when we hear of the birth of a baby.

The shepherds were the first to hear of Jesus’ birth. They were watching over their flocks in the fields when they were suddenly startled with an angelic chorus singing:

... Behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

The announcement is made by the angels with joy. And after the shepherds go to the manger and find the child, one emotion that they experienced is recorded: on the way back they glorified and praised God - they experienced joy!

It seems to me that joy is something we need to give ourselves. It is better than happiness, although happiness is important. In fact, I hope that there are many times when you are happy during the year. However, joy is something that abides. Joy is a kind of being. Joy is a quality. You know when you have joy and when you don’t. Joy is the sense of security that things are going to be all right in the long run, however painful they might be now, because of who God is. The shepherds went to the manger and found the child. On the way back to their flocks in the field, they were glorifying God, and they had a sense of joy.

As we deal with the idea of joy, there are three things which I think are important if we see this as a Season of Joy.

I. This can be a season of joy when you have a sense of humor. Before joy can ever really be a part of our lives, we need a sense of humor. This does not mean that we must always be laughing. That would be absurd. Some things are so critical that laughter would be inappropriate. But, a sense of humor is a flexible way of being able to enjoy life.

A while back, I heard two women discussing the state of their health. They talked of poor eyesight, hearing problems, and various other ailments. One woman turned to the other and asked, "Do you have a cataract?"

The other woman smiled and said, "No, I have a Buick." This is a good example of how well a sense of humor enables you to look past the problems of life and experience life with a sense of joy. There are times when a sense of humor can turn tense situations into laughing situations.

Some time ago, I was speaking in a church that had recently redecorated their parlor. In decorating the parlor, the wallpaper they chose had large flowers - black and red and brown and white flowers. When you walked into the room, that flowered wallpaper was the first thing that caught your attention. It was loud, but tastefully done.

When the redecoration was finished, they held an open house, and a visitor walked into the parlor and said, "I don’t like it! It’s too loud. I wonder what a bride would think when she walked into this room?"

A woman standing beside her, a member of the church, said, "I was on the decoration committee for this parlor."

Without a moment’s hesitation, the visitor smiled and said, "They outvoted you, didn’t they?"

Now, that is just about as quick as you can be. I am sure that there are times when every one of us would wish to be that quick. A good sense of humor can diffuse a tense situation and enable us to experience life with a sense of joy.

II. This can be a season of joy when we learn to look within ourselves. You may see joy in the hearts and lives of others all around you, but the difference comes when you, yourself, begin to experience joy. You can tell me all about friendship and I may see friendship all around me, but there will not be a significant difference for me until I become a friendly person. When friendship gets inside of me, I am changed.

There is a great difference between talking about or observing joy in the lives of others, and being a person whose life is filled with joy. Joy is within you or you don’t have it. If it is not within you, as far as you are concerned, it is nowhere. Joy is something you experience in an inward way.

Some time ago, someone asked me, "Robert, if your house caught on fire, what one thing, after your family, would you want to save?"

What would you save from your house? I thought about some expensive items like the televisions ... or the china ... or the silver dinnerware. But, the more I thought about it, I knew what I would save if I could save only one item. I would save the family photo album. It has pictures of my grandparents, my parents, and there are photos of my wife and me on our wedding day. It also has pictures of the children from the day they were born up to the present.

What is that photo album worth? I don’t really know. It’s probably not worth very much monetarily. If you took it to a flea market, you might get a few dollars, but not much more. But, it is important to me! And do you know why it’s important to me? It is important because it contains a pictorial history of my family.

I think you can understand why that family photo album is important to me. It is important for the same reason that so many things are significant to you and me - it’s what’s inside. It is the people you share life with ... the memories ... those moments you treasure. And that is where you find joy in life. It is what the angel was announcing to the shepherds in the field:

... Behold I bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all people.

You find joy inside your own life. Your life can be filled with joy. That was announced when Jesus was born, and Jesus taught that all of his life.

Are you looking for joy?

Then look within yourself and discover what is truly important. When you do, you will be filled with joy.

III. This can be a season of joy when we learn to find it in a relationship. I think we find joy in relationship with people and with God. In Scripture, we are told that a Savior is born. Luke, the physician, phrased it so simply when he wrote:

... for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

The birth of this Savior means that God has come to be with us. No matter what we experience in life, whether it is trouble, or sickness, or disappointment, or joy, or happiness, or whatever, the message of the Christmas season is that God, the Heavenly Parent, has come to establish a relationship with us. He loves us even as a human father loves his children ... even as a mother loves her children.

Several years ago, when I was pastoring the little Methodist Church in Wagoner, Oklahoma, I was invited to teach a session at the United Methodist Women’s School of Missions in Oklahoma City. I was to teach in the School of Missions and stay in one of the dorms at O.C.U. I brought my son Jeff along with me, and he was quite small.

That night as we were getting ready for bed, I helped him get into his pajamas, listened to his prayers, kissed him good night, and tucked him into one of the twin beds. Then, I turned off the lights and crawled into my own bed. In the silence, I heard a little voice ask, "Daddy, are you there?"

"Yes, Son, I’m here. You go to sleep."

Everything was quiet for a little bit and then I heard that little voice again, "Daddy, are you there?"

"Yes, Son, I’m here. You go to sleep."

"But, Daddy," said that young, frightened voice, "I’m scared."

"It’s okay, Son. I’m here. You just close your eyes and go to sleep."

"Daddy, can we turn on the light?"

"No, Son. I’m here with you. Just close your eyes and go to sleep."

There was a short period of silence and then the small voice asked, "Daddy, can I come get in bed with you?"

"Yes, Son," I responded.

No sooner had I said that than I heard little feet hit the floor and come running to my bed. He crawled under the covers, snuggled against my arm, and in a matter of moments was fast alseep.

Christmas is a Season of Joy because it tells us of a loving God who came into this world because he loves us as a parent loves his children and is always with us. When we snuggle up against his everlasting arms, we have established a relationship which fills our lives with joy.