In the last 24 hours, I have lived my own version of Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. Looking back, maybe there has been a real resemblance between Ebenezer Scrooge and myself. Not for any particular reason, the season's greetings haven't seemed to sink in the way I would want. Everything just seemed a bit off, a slant that I would not choose but found myself embracing.
It started with the written word. It came in the form of correspondence but as I read it, I knew the writer who weaved a beautiful Story, didn't realize that is was the first of what would come. I went over the words again and again and with tears and amazement, took the words to heart.
The morning brought the next stanza of the Carol with a package that I thought would never come. A necklace charm that had been ordered 6 months and after many, many emails, FB post and Twitter tweets - I had giving up. No responses ever sent back. I even resorted to asking for a refund but got nothing but silence. Today it arrived with a second charm and an apology. Out of the blue. The front of the charm had the word, joy printed on it. That pretty much explains how I was feeling.
Heading down the road a few minutes later, Joy to the World came on the radio and the tears started flowing. I put together the three events and realized Somebody was trying to get through to me.
Happy is involuntary and it is fleeting. It is like trying to live a whole lifetime of marriage on the Mountain-top of honeymoon Love. Joy, on the other hand, is a choice. You must make the choose to be joyful and you might have to do it many times a day. Joyful can be lived out even when you find yourself down in the Valley, if you are willing.
I feel like I was given these three joy-themed experiences for a reason. As I sit here, these random events may not seem to anyone else to be connected and that really is the point, it was for me, at this time and it makes perfect sense.
May you find your joy this Christmas season and as Tiny Tim said, God bless us, every one!
