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Joy. Unspeakable Joy.

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Joy. Unspeakable Joy. I don’t know why that song popped into my head for this, the third week of Advent. I’m not even going to look it up for you. If you know it, you know it. Anyway, it’s been a good week. A good week filled with good things. And so it won’t be hard to chat about Joy.

We had the privilege of lighting the Advent candle at our new church this week. True to form, the hubby ad-libbed a little bit. And me? Well, I got a little over zealous and lit four candles instead of three. Oops! Why isn’t joy the fourth week just before Christmas anyway? Love can come before Joy and after Hope and Peace. In fact, I think it should come after Love. You love something or someone and then the joy comes, right? Do you choose that feeling or is it a result of loving? Hmmn. That’s a thought for reflection.

For example, when our little grand baby was born we loved him before we met him. His extended family anticipated with Hope his impending arrival… But the Joy when he arrived… that was different. Perhaps Mary felt the same. She knew her baby was something special. She knew He was going to do great things. But to feel the joy deep down in her heart? I think that only came when she got to meet Him face to face.

In fact, I think that is still true: I don’t think anyone who ever experienced Jesus face to face was ever the same. Good or bad, coming face to face with God will forever change you. In 2024, we don’t have the chance to meet Jesus face to face, on this side of Heaven, but encounters with God are no less powerful. Experiences give us a concrete foundation for the actions that are the result of those experiences. It’s one thing to say “I know how you feel, I will pray”. It’s another thing to say “I’ve been there… I got you”.

Joy. Unspeakable joy. I’m trying to think of how to share or describe it. They say Joy is one of those emotions that is beyond happiness. A feeling that has supernatural roots. You can feel joy despite the human experience…. It is “unspeakable” in a way. You must experience it to understand it. And when you do, you think to yourself, yup, that was a God thing because I could not have done that by myself.

The kids tease me because most weeks I end up crying at church. A worship song hits just so – and tears come. I’m not even a big crier. It’s also been known to happen during a proud moment when I watch my kids perform. A race. A school play. An overwhelming emotion that spills out through my eyelids. Am I alone? I know I am not… I have seen some of you. You gushing emotional wrecks you!

Joy. Unspeakable Joy. In past years, mittonmusings has asked you what brings you joy? I’ve posted photographs. It’s a tough one to write about. Perhaps we all feel it differently. Perhaps that’s why it’s such a deep and indescribable emotion. In the popular movie Inside Out, Joy and Sadness have to work together. Like light and darkness, to experience and understand one, you need to experience and understand the opposite. And then you can truly help another – because you’ve been there.

And so, my friends, time is passing quickly. Perhaps, like me, you were a little zealous and lit one too many candles this week and are now burning them at both ends. It’s crunch time, single digits before Christmas and there is still a lot to do. I wish you peace, hope and now joy. Unspeakable Joy that you must take time to truly experience to understand. May your sadness make your joy complete. And then together, we’ll come back to celebrate Love! Blessings, my readers!

Unspeakable Joy

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Welcome back, my beloveds, to the last week of Advent and the countdown to Christmas! We are so unprepared! Nevertheless, time will go on and Christmas will come and go – whether I am prepared or not. Hopefully, this little post will help us all get in the mood. Thought I’d share about the final theme of Advent for this week: Joy. Our youngest experienced the joy of her first snow day today. A new experience for us… buses cancelled and therefore no one shows up to school? What’s with that?! I’m not complaining though… it means I don’t have to drive in it. Bonus. 

(and so has the snow !!)

This is not the first time I’ve mused about Joy. It’s a recurring theme on mittonmusings.com. If you are interested, go back and check these posts out. They’ll make you smile:

Unspeakable joy. It’s one of the lyrics in the adapted Joy to the World hymn that’s circulating around this time of year. I wonder, though, what does it mean? Unspeakable joy. Usually when you experience “joy” you wanna chat about it, no? Shout: ”Snow day! No school! Hurray!” Tell the world about your experience? Spread the news? Does unspeakable mean indescribable? So dumbfounded that you can’t speak about it? Or awe? Like the marvel at something that just takes your words away. I’m thinking it must be like that.

I’m also guessing it takes a little bit of discipline to see those things around you that bring that unspeakable joy. I’m imagining a new mom… hectic chaos in the midst of bottles, burps and bathing. It’s not until that early morning feeding when the quiet allows you to take a moment, when no one else is around, to marvel at your baby’s tiny features. So perfectly designed. The softness of their delicate skin, and the sweet smell of sour milk and baby powder. If you know, you know. I wonder if Mary had that moment with baby Jesus. I’m sure she did. In fact, I am sure she had it a few times. 

I’m learning to discover it more and more as I take the time to slow down and practice seeing those little things in the world around me. Tiny footprints in the snow. The flame of a warm fire as it dances. It’s dangerous. Fire consumes. Yet, if you take the time to quietly observe things, you will see the beauty in it. That’s when that marvel comes in to play. That’s when you begin to get that awestruck “joy” that there is Someone so much bigger than you who has mastered the tiny intricacies of life as we know it. And that Someone has set them in to place so that this big wide world goes ’round with the exact precision it needs to be set at. Amazing.

We had a unique experience this past week when we were decorating our front porch. We discovered a dead pigeon on the lawn. Now before you scroll away, hear me out. We don’t know what happened. There was one tiny blood streak. A hawk maybe. Or a cat? We don’t get a lot of pigeons, so I think it was dropped in from elsewhere. And I don’t want to glorify death, but there was something beautiful about this bird. Each feather layered in a silky, smooth collection. Some feathers glistening in green and purple iridescence. A striking contrast to the grey and white body feathers. Each wing stretched out to reveal strong flight feathers. Yet so light as to carry this creature on the wind. It hit me with that awe and wonder for a moment. I was able to somehow experience the joy in death. It allowed me to observe a creature I would otherwise not have been able to examine so closely had it been alive. Do you get it? I hope you see it through my words.

Beauty in the everyday. Photo via Popular Science

And it’s the wish I have for you, my friend, as you go into this holiday season. I wish you the chance to experience “unspeakable joy” this Christmas. To practice seeing the beauty – even in some not so beautiful experiences. Perhaps, like many, the holiday season is not an easy one for you. It is not the “happy” season everyone talks about. Joy is different. It goes beyond the happy to a deeper, somehow indescribable and unspeakable emotion of awe in the essence of Christmas. The emotion behind the truth that the Creator of the entire world came to the earth as a tiny, helpless babe. Do you feel it? I wish it for you, my beloved. Joy, unspeakable Joy, to the world!!