Joy can be described as a lasting attitude of the heart that is directly connected to deep gratitude towards a God who keeps his promises. This type of joy does not hinge on circumstance, wealth, or good fortune. The Bible tells us story after story about people who remained joyful through awful and unjust circumstances because they could look far enough ahead to catch a vision of the land and life that was promised to them. 

And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Exodus 3:8

However, looking ahead towards the hope of God's promises does not mean looking past injustice, or tirelessly searching for a silver lining. Joy and sorrow have to be able to coexist. Fullness can not be found in neglecting one and magnifying the other for long periods of time. Our sorrow can be surrounded by joy again. 

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.
Psalm 30:11

Joyful anticipation is at the heart of the advent season. God’s people, today, are waiting in joyful anticipation for him to come down, just like the people of God waited back then. When Jesus came down wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger, joy surrounded the town of David. The next time God comes down he will bring with him a renewed land and a new way of life. We are waiting for the day when God will dwell with his people in the land he has promised. 

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in clothes and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:11-12 

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them”.
Revelation 21:3

We wait in anticipation to see the fullness of promises fulfilled, yet we also recognize the joys that surround us daily while we wait. God clothed Adam and Eve in the garden after they grasped for autonomy, he remained with Israel in the wilderness after leaving Egypt, he continued to feed the birds and dress the lilies. God is at work, and when God is at work joy can be found.

Donna Ashworth wrote a poem titled Joy Comes Back. In the poem she personifies joy and explores what joy can be if we slow down enough to see it rightly:

When you finally realize that joy is less fireworks, more firefly. Less orchestra, more birdsong. She will come back much more often. For joy will not fight with the fast pace of this life. She’s not in the shiny, the new. She breathes in the basic, simmers in the simple, and dances in the daily to-and-fro. Joy has been beckoning for many a year my friend, you were just too busy doing to see. The very next time joy wraps her quiet, warmth around you as the garden embraces your weary body in its wildness, tip her a nod. 

Ashworth concludes the poem by pointing out that we can not force joy to stay, but that joy will come back. Embracing joy is a balancing act of looking back at what God has already done, looking forward at what God will do, and looking around us at what God is doing. 

A question for reflection:
When was the last time I felt true joy, and what was my reaction? 

Marley McCune