Blog

Joy to the World

By: Steve Negley

Posted: January 4, 2019

Category: Daily Devotional

The Twelve Days of Christmas Carols
Christmastide Reflections on Songs of the Season

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 all 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.

And as we join heaven and nature in celebrating this gift to each of us, we may want to prepare room in our own hearts to receive this gift. As Luke tells us of the place of Jesus in our world, he tells about how the good news that was shared with the shepherds took root in Mary’s heart:

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us” So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:15-19

Let every heart (Mary’s and ours) prepare Him room.

Prayer

As I move deeper into a new year, let me make a little more room in my heart for the Holy Child of Bethlehem. Bless us all as we live in the love of the Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.