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“Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
—Luke 15:10
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We’re days from Christmas, and I’m guessing your world, like mine, is trying its best to squeeze the merry most out of this season before it leaves us for another year. And there’s nothing wrong with that . . . unless you’re pre-Christmas Scrooge, I guess.
But if I’m honest, I can relate a bit to Dicken’s joyless Scrooge. My cynicism tells me that festive joy can be a bit excessive, unreasonable, and shallow. There is, after all, still much wrong with the world, even during Christmas.
It’s taken me a while to understand one of the major themes of Luke 15, a chapter featuring three stories of a tender joy that springs from the fertile ground of sadness, loss, and failure. Three stories marked by a defiant joy that overcomes the separating power of sin.
For the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit. (Rom. 14:17)
Scripture wants us to know that God rejoices. Not because everything is right and good. Not because everyone knows the joy of salvation. Not because all the prodigals have returned.God rejoices because of the one—that’s all it takes. We could say that’s irrational. But in God’s economy, joy is strength, and when we rejoice over the one, we somehow find the capacity to reconcile the many.
Response
“The essential attribute,” wrote R. Nahman, “for spiritual health is joy. Enveloped in sadness, the human being is easy prey for Satan. Finding some basis, however tenuous, for joy, becomes a religious duty.”
I want to challenge you to spend some time this week praying through Luke 15. As you read about the sheep, the coins, the sons, place yourself in these stories. You’ll see that Jesus tells of a costly joy—one that comes with forgiveness and repentance, seeking and finding, tears and confusion. A joy that, in this broken world, can feel easy to lose . . . yet something inside us knows it’s always worth finding again.
Closing Thoughts
The joy of God belongs to His children. It is our inheritance. I cannot shake the sense that 2025 will open its treasures to you as you approach it with irrational joy.
“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” (Luke 2:10)
Rejoicing with you,
Addison
P.S. I know “pray more” is a popular New Year’s resolution, so if you don’t have the Words With God book yet, I’d highly encourage you to make it your January read. You can get it at the Messenger Store or Amazon. Speaking of the book, I recently received this message from one of you . . .
“I am reading your book, and I am not even halfway through it and I can only say that I feel in my spirit a ‘cosmic shift.’ I have no better way to describe it!!! It is a revelation of God’s Love, like I have never known before.” (LG)
