For most Christians, this is the season of Advent, a time of waiting for Love to be born into this world. This year, it is hard to forget we are in a time of waiting. We are waiting for a vaccine, waiting for an end to sickness and isolation, waiting for justice, waiting for these strange days to be over. On the third Sunday of Advent, the Advent wreath candle is lit for Joy. During this time, how do we even think about joy? I share these reflections on joy by Rev. Elea Kemler with you.

The old stories we retell at this time of year have clues. They tell us something important about the nature of joy—that joy can break through like starlight or candlelight in the darkness, but that it is surrounded by the hard stuff of everyday life. Maybe that makes it all the more precious. The stories remind us there is still and always joy in this world, and it is for everyone. But it usually comes right alongside the struggle.
Mary and Joseph make a long, tired journey to Bethlehem, before the joy of the baby’s birth. The Maccabees live in the hills, fighting desperate battles and impossible odds before winning back their city and the oil in the temple lamp burning for eight days. Winter Solstice arrives in the midst of the deepest darkness. The joy comes alongside the waiting; it comes alongside the pain and fear and uncertainty, and has nothing to do with ideal circumstances.

Maybe all we can do is issue joy an open invitation and then start paying attention to how and where it shows up. We may discover that joy is already happening, smaller and quieter and braver than we realized. We may find joy is in the taste of an orange, the smell of coffee, the view of the night sky, the sound of the violin.
This is a difficult season in a difficult year. May joy find you, however and wherever you are.

Marianne DiBlasi, CPE Intern