Joy: Day 11

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days of Christmas for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

We are back to colder weather again. I hope everyone can stay warm enough in the days ahead, both those who have warm places to work and eat and sleep, and those who will be experiencing the cold for longer periods of time. May we have compassion on those who need help and support.

There is still beauty around us and the joy of seeing that beauty in such things as frost and the way the skies sometimes appear when the temperatures are very cold. I was struck by the similarity of the shape of this bit of frost to plants such as ferns and palms. The repetition of shapes and patterns in God’s creation is a wonder. I hope those reading this can ponder some of the wonder and joy in creation from the comfort of a cozy place.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 10

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days of Christmas for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

A light snowfall, just enough to cover everything, fell on Wednesday. Yesterday was cold and mostly cloudy, and where it was undisturbed by brooms or salt, the snow remained. Today the sun shone and the wind blew warm out of the southwest. By afternoon, water was running off of roofs and down slopes, and much of the snow was gone.

The snow had been light and had only been around two days, so the joy was not so much in seeing it melt as in hearing the sound of running water and remembering the words of Psalm 147, the Psalm appointed for last Sunday:

    17  You give snow like wool; *
          and scatter hoarfrost like ashes.

    18  You scatter your hail like bread crumbs; *
          who can stand against your cold?

    19  You send forth your word and melt them; *
          you blow with your wind, and the waters flow.

         (Saint Helena Psalter)

And there it was!

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 9

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days of Christmas for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

 This picture is one I took two years ago in Syracuse, New York, but it represents something that gave me joy today when I was driving and unable to snap a photo. I was leaving Grand Island this afternoon, driving south on Highway 281 on the sort of cold, gray afternoon that brings “In the bleak midwinter” to mind. Just south of Stolley Park Road, I noticed something running away from the highway, following a fence. That something was a deer. Just like the deer in my photo from Syracuse, it was finding its way along the edge of property on the outskirts of town. Part of the joy is seeing a wild animal where we don’t expect it to be, a sudden reminder that even with all our highways and factories and stores and houses, wildness is always near.

This winter deer brought to mind another, much older, Christmas carol, “The holly and the ivy”:

The holly and the ivy,
When they are both full grown
Of all the trees that are in the wood
The holly bears the crown
O the rising of the sun
And the running of the deer
The playing of the merry organ
Sweet singing in the choir.

Here it is sung by the Westminster Abbey Choir

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 8

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days of Christmas for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

With no snow to be seen in our part of Nebraska during the first seven days of Christmas, a light, fluffy snowfall this morning was a delightful sight, especially for those of us planning to stay home this New Year’s Day anyway. A clean layer of fresh snow covered everything.

Even as an adult, I have an urge to go out and marvel at each new snowfall, so I went out for a bit today and looked around. Here is one snowflake of many, another star-shaped wonder of the season:

 Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 7

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days of Christmas for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

Even this…

 …a  little bit of tumbleweed, a plain thing on the ground somehow mirroring the shape of stars we create to suggest the Christmas or Epiphany star, carries joy with it.

New research reported today suggests that global warming will be at the higher end of the range of predictions rather than the lower end. This means that we can expect global temperatures to rise by at least 4° C (about 7.2° F.) by the end of this century. [See Climate Change Worse Than We Thought, Likely To Be ‘Catastrophic Rather Than Simply Dangerous’] Worst of all, this research will no doubt go largely unnoticed in the media and by those who form public policies, giving ignorance of our peril the power to keep us from any significant action to mitigate the rise in global temperatures.

The possibility of a 4° degree C rise by 2100  is not news, but increased certainty of the severity of global warming is newly sobering. Every living thing seems more precious in light of this reminder of the fragility of our biosphere at this point in history. Something like this tumbleweed suddenly is precious because it has a place in an ecosystem that we are losing rapidly. Little things can bring great joy under these circumstances, but that joy is mixed with great grief.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 6

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

 We were on the road today, driving west from clouds and cold in Omaha into sunnier skies and warmer temperatures as we neared home. There were many images of joy: the initial glimpse of distant brightness, the increasing brightness and finally real sunshine as we moved toward the light, hawks gliding in the sky, the Platte River in various stages of freezing and thawing.

When I got home, though, I went outside to experiment with a new camera lens and looked at the small details of several familiar things – rocks, a bit of moss, and this sprig of lavender, beautiful in its details and in its smell even in this dormant stage. Seeing familiar things in a new way is a joy. Perennials and shrubs become old friends when they have been in a garden a few years, and it’s a special joy to really look at them and see them in a new way.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy: Day 5

Joy to the world! The Lord is come: let earth receive her king;

Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

With “Joy to the world” in our hearts and minds, I invite you to join me in looking each of these twelve days for instances of the joy that runs through all of creation, especially through experiencing the beauty and wonder of God’s world.

Our little corner of the world was very cold today. Last night we listened to the wind whistle and saw a couple of big Christmas ball decorations roll down the street, pushed by the wind. By morning, the wind was less fierce, but the temperature was still in the single digits with a fairly good wind chill effect still going on. But along with the cold came another clear blue sky. Even though the low-angled winter sun doesn’t do a lot to actually raise the temperature, it helped some and it certainly made everything seem warmer and brighter.

Especially on this Sunday where our Gospel lesson talked about the light shining in the darkness, sunbeams represent the joy in creation.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; let us our songs employ, while fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy.