Advent Reflections: A Season of Joy, The Lord is Come!

There is a lot to get excited about during the Christmas season - decorations, lights, gift giving, getting together with family and friends, to name just a few.

One of my favorite parts about this time of the year is singing Christmas hymns and one of my very favorite hymns is Joy to the World. Its author, Isaac Watts, originally wrote it as a poem based on Psalm 98 to exalt Jesus Christ as king of his people and the entire world. Interestingly, it is about the second coming of the Lord, not his birth. Here are the first couple of stanzas:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And heav’n and nature sing,

And heav’n and nature sing,

And heav’n, and heav’n, 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.

Jesus came to earth to restore God’s vision of heaven on earth as He originally intended when He created Eden. The ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan will come when Jesus returns for the second time and we experience the new heaven and new earth: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” (Revelation 21:3-4)

In much the same way as the early Christian forefathers waited in anticipation for the first coming of Jesus, we now wait in anticipation for Jesus’ second coming - and that makes Joy to the World the perfect hymn to sing! We are full of joy for the birth of our beloved Savior and we are full of joy for what is to come when He returns, in the full assurance that what John’s vision revealed in Revelation 21:3-4 will come to pass.

So this Christmas season, especially if you happen to hear Joy to the World while wrapping presents or driving to the grocery store for last minute ingredients, remember to rejoice not only in Christ’s birth in that lowly manger, but also in the expectant day of His glorious return.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Wishing you a very blessed Christmas,

Lori