JOY

It is only November but shopping malls ring with Christmas Carols. “Joy to the world the Lord has come!” But what exactly is joy?  Is it happiness?

Let’s google some dictionaries to see how they define joy. The Oxford Learners Dictionaries says, “a feeling of great happiness”. Cambridge Dictionary says, “great happiness”, and the Oxford English Dictionary says, “a feeling of great happiness or pleasure.” Let’s see how the same dictionaries define happiness. Oxford Learners Dictionaries says happiness is “the state of feeling or showing pleasure”. The Cambridge Dictionary says, “the feeling of being pleased or happy”. And the Oxford English Dictionary says, “the quality or condition of being happy, deep pleasure”. The difference between the two states is that joy is “great happiness” whereas happiness is “showing pleasure”, “being pleased or happy”, and “deep pleasure”.

In Luke 2:10-11 we read: “And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord”. And this is not only joy but great joy and it is to the world.

May your Christmas be blessed with this great joy.
Merle

​Pls see Menu at top of page for CHRISTMAS with info about how we can celebrate Christmas with music, a childrens’ play (PRAISE HIM!), poems and Cantata.