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Joy for the Heavy Hearts

 It's Wednesday in this third week of Advent and I needed to muse out loud about Joy for heavy hearts.  I've been thinking about some friends and "bad news" that has dimmed the joy of the season.  I'm thinking of friends who have lost loved ones right before Christmas. 

It was 1963, and I was 14 years.  I had a morning paper route, delivering Milwaukee Sentinel papers.  It was December 6th.  I had gotten up early and pedaled my bike around the small town I lived in, stopping at each house to put the paper either on the front porch or the front door.  I loved the winter scenery with lights, trees lit through the windows, decorations, and street lights covered by freshly fallen snow.  With the last paper delivered I pedaled my bike back home, looking forward to breakfast.  As I walked through the door, I saw my mom across the kitchen standing, apron on, holding something in her hand, and she was crying.  I stood still for what seemed like seconds...wondering what was going on...and then my mom looked up and said, "Grandma passed away".  I can still remember, the paper in my hand fell to the floor and I began to weep.  My Grandmother meant the world to me, and now she was no longer her.  That was 59 years ago, and my memory of that morning is as real today as it was then.

I have Christmas music on every morning, and today "Joy to the World" began as I thought about some friends with heavy hearts.  The song was written by Isaac Watts in the early 18th century.  Watts grew up in a Christian household, but because his father was a rebellious non-conformist, he spent many Christmas days knowing his father would not be home because he had been arrested and imprisoned.  Still, Watts grew up proud of his father's stances against what he saw as the abuse of power.  He was a young man when he began to write music.  By the time he was an old man, he had composed over 600 hymns and hundreds more poems.  

One of Isaac Watts' most famous hymns came from his study of Psalm 98 which contains the passage:  "Make a Joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth:  make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise".  He sat down to compose a song based on those words and didn't think of it as a Christmas song, but a song of worship and praise - especially to those who carried heavy hearts.  Joy to the World is one of the most sung hymns at Christmas, and most Christians would not think it was written for any other reason than to celebrate Christ Jesus' birth.  Yet, the theme of the song is to see that the Lord "has" come, as King, to reign over His Kingdom, to free mea and women from their sorrows and let his blessings flow through their heavy hearts - it is the wonder of His love.

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 earth! 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, wonders of His love.


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