Joy is a bit difficult to define…but you know it when you feel it. During the Christmas Season, we seek something to react with our emotions that will subsequently bring us that elusive joy that songs have been written about. We hope that our Christmas shopping will go well…or at least as planned. We labor to ensure that our decorations are eye-catching and somewhat better than our neighbors. During Advent, we desire our Pastor to read the passages from scripture that resonate with our personal Christmas. We donated to the poor children in order that they might have a better Christmas…we give to the needy in hopes that the spirit of the Enlightened Scrooge will drop upon us and we will magically understand the Reason For The Season… Some of us stand upon our soapbox and proclaim with righteous indignation…that we do not say Happy Holidays…we proclaim…Merry Christmas… We that perform this Christmas Theatre equivocate God’s Fiery Anger…with the meek and mild birth of our Saviour in a barn…

Christmas Magic is supposed to fall upon us from Heaven…with the Christmas Star to show brightly upon our dark path. Somehow we have not perceived that the Magic of Christmas rests in our hearts. It is not Chrismas reacting with us…it is us reacting with the birth of Jesus and the wonderful promise of the Season. MJ and I visited with a wonderful Physicians Assistant today. This woman, Misha, is full of joy and gives peace and hope to all that she meets. Combined with receiving much better news than you feared that you might…the Christmas Trees show more brightly and the Christmas Carols have a deeper meaning.

As if it were but yesterday…I remember riding to Eldorado with my buddy, Steve, in his 1950’s Chrysler. In the back seat

a lovely landscape picture that I had purchased at Down’s Furniture in Elkville. I purchased it on time because I did not have the $25 dollars to pay for it outright. Christmas In The Country was playing on the radio…and there was snow on the ground…and it was cold…and I felt like a millionaire who just had yet to count his money…

‘A merry heart doeth good like a medicine…’