Bill Adler wrote a book once that consisted of children's letters to Santa Claus. Here are some of the letters:
"Dear Santa:
Last year you didn't leave me anything good. The year before last year, you didn't leave me anything good. This year is your last chance. Alfred
Dear Santa:
My baby brother would like a cowboy suit. Do you have one with diapers? --Andy
Dear Santa:
In my house there are three boys. Richard is two. Jeffrey is four. Norman is seven. Richard is good sometimes. Jeffrey is good sometimes. Norman is good all the time. (Signed) Norman."
Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes comic strip fame) stands behind a tree, poised to throw a snowball at his "girlfriend." She says, "I see you, Calvin, and you'd better not throw that snowball! I'm mailing a letter to Santa right now."
Calvin asks: "Is the envelope sealed?"
"Yes," she replies, "but I could write a P.S. on the back."
"Do you have a pen?" Calvin asks.
"As a matter of fact, I do!" she answers.
Calvin drops the snowball and says, "I'll bet she's bluffing, but this is not the time of year to tempt fate."
One comedian claims his wife hasn't spoken to him since last Christmas. "I asked her what she wanted for Christmas," he explains, "and she said, Oh, just surprise me.' So, at three o'clock Christmas morning, I leaned over and went, BOO!'" (1)
In my ministry, I have heard people agonize over God's will for their life. Is this God's will for me? Is that God's will for me? Did such-and-such happen because of God's will? Would you like to know what God's will is for you? I can tell you absolutely, without hesitation or trepidation, what God's will is for your life. It is right here in Thessalonians. Paul writes: "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, FOR THIS IS GOD'S WILL FOR YOU IN CHRIST JESUS." There it is from God's word in black and white. God's will is for you to be joyful!
According to Robert Wayne Pelton's book, Laughable Laws and Courtroom Capers, there is a community in Idaho that requires its citizens always to appear to be happy when seen in public places. Rexburg, Idaho retains an old ordinance prohibiting local citizens from walking down the street while "looking gloomy." (2) Maybe we need a rule like that in church. It is God's will for us to be joyful.
Dr. Paul S. Rees tells about a short article with the intriguing title, "Gloomy Caesar and Happy Jesus." The author contrasted what we know of Tiberius Caesar, who ruled Rome in A.D. 30, with what we know of the Savior. Of Tiberius, with all his power, pomp, and possessions, the historian Pliny wrote, "He is the gloomiest of mankind." But of Jesus we read that sitting in the shadow of his cross, he "took bread, and gave thanks . . ." and when the holy supper was over, they sang a "hymn and went out." Dr. Rees concludes by saying, "You and I are not to be dispensers of Caesar's gloom but rather transmitters of Jesus' joy!"
Kaufmann Kohler states in the Jewish Encyclopedia that no language has as many words for joy and rejoicing as does Hebrew. In the Old Testament, thirteen Hebrew roots, found in twenty-seven different words, are used primarily for some aspect of joy or joyful participation in religious worship.
Hebrew religious ritual demonstrates God as the source of joy. In contrast to the rituals of other faiths of the East, Israelite worship was essentially a joyous proclamation and celebration. The good Israelite regarded the act of thanking God as the supreme joy of his life. Pure joy is joy in God as both its source and object. The psalmist says, "Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fullness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures forevermore." (Psalm 16:11) (3)
The Hebrew Bible is a book of joy! The New Testament is a book of Good News! This is God's will for us to be joyful, to pray continuously and to give God thanks in all circumstances.
Dr. Paul Rees, whom we mentioned earlier, once told about a man from Louisville, Kentucky, who had to travel to St. Louis on business. This was years ago when Christian people still kept Sunday as a very special day. For this man, "keeping the Sabbath" meant not riding the trains on Sunday. Thus, after he finished up his business late Saturday night, he had to stay over in St. Louis until the following Monday morning.
On Sunday morning, he left the hotel looking for a place to worship. The streets were quite deserted, but finally he saw a policeman and asked him for directions to the nearest Protestant church. The stranger thanked the policeman for the information and was about to walk off when he turned and asked the policeman: "Why have you recommended that particular church? There must be several churches nearby that you could have recommended."
The policeman smiled and replied: "I'm not a church man myself, but the people who come out of that church are the happiest looking church-people in St. Louis. I thought that would be the kind of church you would like to attend." (4)
You and I can relate to that, can't we? Who doesn't want to be around happy people? This is the great secret that many of us have hidden from the world. God's will is for us to be joyful! Don't you think that people would be drawn to this church if we got the reputation as being the happiest-looking people in town?
Yvonne Dilling, a church worker from Indiana spent time in Salvadoran refugee camps in Honduras during the time of much violence and heartache in El Salvador. One group of Salvadorans fled from their village and across the Lempa River to Honduras, while helicopters strafed the shores. Many people died in the crossing. But the refugees immediately began to build a camp. The first task was to form three committees: a construction committee, an education committee, and the COMITE DE ALEGRIA "the committee of joy." Celebration was as basic to the life of the refugees as digging latrines and teaching their children to read. Even in exile, they remembered to build and plant and to dance. (5)
One thing many people have forgotten in their Christian pilgrimage the duty to be joyful. Maybe it is the innate joyfulness of children that caused Jesus to use a little child as the sole embodiment of the kingdom of God. As long as children feel loved, their joy is evident, even in the worst situations.
One writer tells of her trepidation at seeing the slums of Bombay. The poverty was overwhelming and hygiene all but lacking. Nonetheless, the air was filled with the laughter of children at play. Psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross speaks movingly of an even worse situation. Visiting a children's barracks in one of the German death camps after the Second World War, she had expected to see evidence of terror. Instead the walls were covered with drawings of butterflies a universal symbol of joy. (6)
For those of us who are adults, one of the things that make Christmas so joyful is seeing the wide-eyed expressions of wonder on little faces. Children know about joy. Adults can lose their joy so easily. What does it take to rob you of your joy? What causes more holiday headaches, someone asked: a houseful of relatives or the words "some assembly required"? The Exedrin Headache Resource Center took a poll to find out. Here is a list of the joy robbers they discovered during the holiday season:
- Fighting crowds and traffic
- Not getting enough sleep and changing sleep patterns
- Not having enough time to get everything done
- Spending too much money
- Eating or drinking too much
- Skipping meals because of busy schedule
- Getting together with friends and family
- Cooking and cleaning
- Long plane/ train/ car trips
- Being apart from friends and family during the holidays (7)
In one of his books, John Maxwell tells about a woman who was determined to let nothing rob her of her Christmas joy even the rejection of her family. One Christmas, Maxwell was walking through their church offices wishing everyone a merry Christmas. Stopping to speak to one of the volunteer secretaries, he asked, "Are you ready for Christmas?" With a smile she replied, "Almost. Just one more Care Bear to stuff." Figuring she was making the bears for her grandchildren, he asked, "How many grandchildren do you have?" "None," she replied. "But that's okay. I went out into my neighborhood and adopted some. I figured that if I'm going to have a family at Christmas, then I'd better go round them up!"
With a little coaxing from Maxwell, she began to explain some of the problems she'd had with her own family. The more she told him, the more he sensed that this remarkable lady refused to wallow in the pool of pity in which so many are drowning. Christmas to her would be lovely and not lonely only because she would not allow her attitude to crash over things she could not control. (8) Many of us could learn from that determined lady. God's will for each of us this Christmas season is joy.
Let me suggest something that may be very hard for some of you. If your heart is aching this Advent season for any reason the loss of love in a marriage, the memory of someone you love who is now with God, concern about a teenage child, concerns about your health. Don't let despair defeat you. Joy is the Christian's obligation our responsibility. Find someway this special season to defeat the blues. Join a group that is singing carols, work in a soup kitchen, adopt a needy child for Christmas, think of shut-ins who have no one to care about them do something positive, something heartwarming, something that will bring someone else joy. For joy has a way of boomeranging and giving the person who gives it more joy than the one who receives it. Joy is the natural emotion of the Christian. We dare not let it slip away.
A man named Scott Walker tells about a tragedy that came into his life and how, by the grace of God, he was able to turn it into a triumph. Holding a flashlight in his hand, he wearily watched the flood waters of Hurricane Hugo rush through the basement of his family's home. Seconds before midnight, the door had collapsed under pressure from a mounting tidal surge, and now five feet of swirling water rampaged through their storage room.
By flashlight beam, he counted basement steps rapidly being crested by water. "Four more steps and it will be in the living room," he thought helplessly. Then he saw it a large cardboard box bobbing its way out the door. He gasped, and without thinking, plunged into the water. He grabbed the box and struggled back to the steps. The box contained Christmas decorations collected over the years, and he was not about to let them be washed away.
He peeled open the soggy container and sighed with relief. Inside were the beautiful mahogany figures of their family's nativity scene, carved years ago in the Philippines where his parents were missionaries. It had become the focal point of his family's Christmas, reminding them of the true meaning of the season. "We almost lost it," he whispered, as he dried the wet figures with a towel. "We almost lost it!"
As he began the preparations for Christmas that year, it seemed to Scott that too often he had lost the true meaning of Christmas. Familiarity from years of repeating the Christmas story acts like a tidal surge, sweeping away the wonder at the mystery and joy of the birth of Jesus Christ. This coming Christmas, he wanted to look at the wooden figures of his family's nativity scene with new eyes. He wanted to hear the Christmas story with new ears. He wanted to sing with new fervor, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." (9)
Scott Walker discovered what many of us have discovered. The joy of Christmas is so precious. We can't afford to let it slip away without having it take up residence in our hearts. After all, this is God's will for us this Advent season. That we should discover joy!
1. Michael Hodgin, 1001 HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING (Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House), p. 163.
2. (New York: Walker and Company, 1993), p. 75.
3. BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR
4. THE KESWICK WEEK, (London: Marshall, Morgan, and Scott, Ltd., 1958), p. 133. Cited in J. B. Fowler, Jr., ILLUSTRATING GREAT WORDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1991).
5. "A Joyful Noise," by Joyce Hollyday, SOJOURNERS,
6. September/October 1995, p. 48.
7. Joan Borysenko, GUILT IS THE TEACHER, LOVE IS THE LESSON (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1990).
8. "Holiday Pain," NEWSWEEK, December 18, 1995, p. 8.
9. John Maxwell, THE WINNING ATTITUDE.