Artwork by Paige N.
Isaiah 35: 1-10
by Tyler Hays
The Christmas season is one of the most joyful times that we experience through the year. There is the joy of taking extra time to get together with friends and family. The joy of finding gifts for your loved ones that you know will make them smile. The joy of listening to Christmas hymns and carols. The joy of watching your favorite Christmas movies and maybe hearing George Bailey shout “Merry Christmas, you ole Building and Loan” for the seventieth time! The joy of watching children and the young at heart getting swept up in the excitement of the season.
The joy of the Christmas season gives us a glimpse of what true joy is. The Christmas season is a sign of hope for us all, that there is a greater joy waiting for us. A joy, which is greater than any we have ever experienced or can even fully comprehend.
Isaiah paints an image of this joy by describing a world where impossibilities become possible. We get to see a glimpse of this in our holiday filled with warmth, color, and glitz in the midst of a cold, bleak, and dreary time of year. Isaiah uses an image of everyone and everything shouting and leaping in the glory of the Lord, like the laughter heard when long absent friends and family are reunited, or the joyful sound of people gathered to sing Christmas carols. So take hope in these glimpses of true joy that come to us during the Christmas season, and remember that the highest high points in your life are nowhere near the heights to which Jesus can take you!