The third week of Advent

The third week of advent is about joy. A joy that is beyond circumstance or convenience. It is a joy that broke thru a dark night in the Middle East to tell shepherds of a the newly born king. It was a joy that had been building for decades on Earth. It was the joy of a heavenly Father making good on a promise made at the beginning of Creation.

Have you ever had a secret? A secret so good and exciting it was all you could do to keep it in?

That's what kind of joy was coming to burst out from Heaven. It was the kind of joy that made King David dance with abandon in the streets of Jerusalem when the ark was returned. It was the kind of joy that made Jesus's cousin John jump in his mother's womb just at being belly to belly with the future Messiah.

This joy that Jesus brought to Earth is the kind that sustains me when I've been going thru a dark season. The joy of Jesus is the strength I need to slog thru the mire onward towards the mountain top. My joy is not based on what I do, or what I've done or will do. It's a joy that entered my soul when I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

That is one of the reason's Christ came to Earth. To bring a joy that would lift up the heads of the hurting so we can focus on the Heavens. From which our joy comes.