DAY 29

A NONTHORNY SUBJECT

Christmas day has arrived.  I hope that wherever you find yourself that you will embrace the gift of joy that we celebrate on this day.  Joy is not simply a feeling we have but a person who has us.  Our joy is in Christ and our life lived in him.

In the song “Joy to the World,” there is the phrase, “No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground.”  This is a very fitting phrase for a Christmas song.  It brings to my mind the curse that God pronounced on Adam and all mankind.  In Genesis 3:17-18, God curses Adam saying,

 And to Adam he said,

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife
and have eaten of the tree
of which I commanded you,
‘You shall not eat of it,’
cursed is the ground because of you;
in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you;
and you shall eat the plants of the field.

 After the dust settles from all of your Christmas festivities, remember the very specific reason we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  He came to turn this curse and death on its ear.  His birth marked the beginning of the end for death and the curse.  We eagerly wait this Christmas for our Lord’s second advent when he will bring to completion what he began on his first advent.

This Christmas Day, remember that Christ came to reverse the curse!

JOY TO THE WORLD

Joy to the world! The Lord is come
Let earth receive her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room

And heaven and nature sing
And heaven and nature sing
And heaven, and heaven and nature sing

Joy to the world! the Savior reigns
Let men their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy

No more let sins and sorrows grow
Nor thorns infest the ground
He comes to make
His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found
Far as the curse is found
Far as, far as the curse is found

He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders and wonders of His love