joy incarnate

---

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Luke 1:41

---

This verse gets me. An unborn child leaping with the news of Jesus. Dancing before his Messiah! And there was cause to dance. The King of kings entered the world in real time.

A millennium earlier King David stripped down to his pajamas and danced before the Ark and here John does the same thing in his birthday suit. Another dance would prove his undoing, yes, but let’s be real. When just a baby, long before that wretched affair with dancing Salome, John cut a rug for Jesus in his mama’s womb.

The reactions of the people of the first Christmas varied then as they do today. John is but one example.

Joseph feared.

Mary wondered.

Elizabeth blessed.

The innkeeper dismissed.

The city slept.

Anna waited.

Simeon prophesied.

Shepherds worshipped.

Herod raged.

John danced.

Recently I was struck by a re-reading of the Christmas story about a choir of angels suddenly erupting in song over the fields of Palestine. What grabbed my attention was the nature and ministry of angels. They never act contrary to the will of God, but always in concert with the Almighty.

They were singing. They were celebrating. They were excited. It occurred to me that the angels were exhibiting on earth the same atmosphere present in heaven. I believe it’s safe to say God was deep in his cups of joy over the whole affair.

We should, first, think that God leads a very interesting life, and that he is full of joy. Undoubtedly he is the most joyous being in the universe. The abundance of his love and generosity is inseparable from his infinite joy. All of the good and beautiful things from which we occasionally drink tiny droplets of soul-exhilarating joy, God continuously experiences in all their breath and depth and richness.

— Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

When Jesus told of a single sinner being converted he said the reaction in heaven was a party. Here’s how our Savior phrased it: “I am saying to you, joy arises in the presence of the angels of God” (Wuest). Did you catch that? Read it again. “In the presence of the angels of God.” Jesus paints a vivid picture of the Father’s joy.

John Piper said, “It is good to have a happy King.” The leaders of today are anything but happy. They are conflicted, narcissistic, frightened, aloof, dishonest, boorish. But the God of the universe is a happy King. His cup runneth over with joy!

That same joy touched John. The very moment the tiny prophet-in-utero was made aware of the Messiah being inches away, heaven’s ecstasy crashed into his amniotic sac. He was struck as if by a bolt of lightning and jumped for joy. Such was the force of celebration that his own mother felt its aftershock.

“Christians ought to be celebrating constantly. We are to be preoccupied with parties, banquets, feasts, and merriment. We are to give ourselves over to veritable orgies of joy because we’ve been liberated from the fear of life and the fear of death. We are to attract people to the church quite literally by the fun there is in being a Christian.”

—Robert Hotchkins, theologian, University of Chicago

In the earliest part of the 20th century, a guest speaker was invited to address the graduates of a college in Massachusetts. Before the ceremony, the speaker, Henry van Dyke, spent some time celebrating God’s joy in creating the Berkshire mountains. He was inspired to jot down some lyrics to which perfectly fit with Beethoven’s famous tune, “Ode to Joy.”

I find the third verse most appropriate this morning:

Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our Brother,
All who live in love are Thine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.

This Christmas weekend, I just wanted to remind you that our Father is a Giver of Joy because he is full of joy. As you gather with family and friends, may you offer up laughter and share the happiness of heaven. And, by all means, if so disposed, dance for joy in your pajamas.

Selah, beloved, and the merriest of Christmases!