“Joy, O joy, beyond all gladness, Christ hath done away with sadness!”

Another year–evaporated.

The older I get, the faster time elapses. Someone once explained to me why this is. It’s a simple math problem. When a person lives from age one to age two, she has just lived half of her life. When a person lives from age 54 to age 55, that year is 1/55th of her whole life. 1/55th of something is bound to feel much shorter than 1/2 of something. I’m not stellar at math but this really resonated with me.

I digress.

I took the month of December off with the business–physically, that is. Mentally, I can’t turn off the hymns in my heart. I’m constantly searching for the next inspiration that has me itching to wake up in the morning so I can put a thought down on paper (or, in this case, on my laptop screen).

As I leafed through the Christmas section in my hymnal last Sunday, I stopped and hovered over this one–“O Rejoice, Ye Christians, Loudly.” So many hymns call up memories of my childhood. About this hymn I remember being perplexed.

The melody inspires one to sing with a frown on one’s face, as if in grave earnest. It seemed the melody called upon my arms to swing with fists clenched as if marching forward in full battle dress. What felt odd was that the words didn’t match the melody. They were beautiful, soft and lovely words like ‘rejoice,’ ‘wondrous,’ ‘goodness,’ ‘gladness,’ ‘love,’ ‘glowing,’ and ‘peace.’ While singing with a frown on my face, it felt like a mismatch.

However, back then, just as now, when it came time to sing the refrain, even as a fifth grader I LOVED the following line and sang it with extra oomph. How true it is–this simple, powerful, short poetic statement:

“Joy, O joy, beyond all gladness, Christ hath done away with sadness!”

This phrase acted as a prelude to the beautiful ‘march up the steps,’ as I imagined it, as the melody of the final line ascended from an F above middle C to a high D and culminated with an exclamation point. I loved exclamation points in hymns back then and I still do:

“O rejoice, ye Christians, loudly,
For our joy has now begun;
Wondrous things our God has done.
Tell abroad His goodness proudly,
Who our race has honored thus,
That He has befriended us.
Joy, O joy, beyond all gladness!
Christ has done away with sadness!
Hence, all sorrow and repining,
For the Sun of Grace is shining!”

If you’re like me, not every chapter of this past year was a happy one. Things can run along smoothly for a time–until they don’t. How thankful I am at the start of this New Year that, even midst a sure collection of future troubles, I can still ‘REJOICE.’

There is joy in Christ, beyond all gladness.

Happy humming!

Liz