dsc_0835-2So it’s Christmas Eve and I am fighting my feelings.  I’m sitting here with my hubby on a quiet evening.  No family…. Not that normal excitement that usually comes with the season.  In some ways it seems kind of sad, but it’s just because things have changed.  Most of the boys are now with significant others and living out of town.  So we spent our “Christmas” together on Saturday, so that they would be with their ladies families on Christmas day.  It was wonderful to be together, but the new normal is taking some getting used to.  It was kind of getting me down having such a quiet Christmas Eve and anticipating the same on Christmas Day.  It didn’t help that I was going to the doctor because I wasn’t feeling well.  Really?  Is this how the holiday is supposed to be?  

As I was driving home it hit me.  Why am I pouting?  I had Christmas.  The family, food, gifts and fun was had this past weekend.  Even more than that I thought, Christmas shouldn’t be just a day but a state of being.  The “Good News, Great Joy, All People” should be what I’m choosing to celebrate and live every day.   

So this evening I was feeling a little more in the spirit of the day, so my hubby and I went to a Christmas Eve service.  The service was lovely and as the Pastor spoke, I was reminded of a word.  It was funny, it wasn’t the one he was talking about, but God always changes things up on me like that.  

img_4462As I thought about the word, I wondered about its origin.  I found references to an old French word, but it was the “re” that caught my eye.  So I had to look it up.  

Re – a prefix occurring originally in loanwords from Latin, used with the meaning “again” or “again and again” to indicate repetition.  

So whatever comes after the “re” is happening again and again.  And what was the thing that was continually happening?  

Joir (Joiss) – Old French… experience joy

Ahhhh!!  That is what I was looking for!  Not that one day of celebration, but theca9583de30e2e850b492eff0c494a42d--nativity-silhouette-silhouette-cameo ongoing …..experiencing of Joy!  That is what the season is about!  That is really what I want my life to be about…. experiencing joy again and again.  So I rejoice in the great plan of God, to bring wholeness back to the relationship between humankind and Himself.    The plan that came at just the right time, on a dark winters night with the birth of a child.

And it will be said in that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.  This is the Lord for whom we have waited; Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.         Isaiah 25:9