Do you ever feel like joy might need some glue? Amy from the MessyMiddle.com is back today to explain how Jesus is THAT glue! I have been enJOYing this partnership so much! I am thankful for her wit, her heart, and her attention to detail. I hope this post gets your your week off to a great start. EnJOY!

When your joy might need some glue…

It was like walking in on a Christmas Crime Scene. In Friday’s video, I mentioned that our Christmas tree had fallen over. Want to know the miracle? (Okay, that may be pushing it, since it fell on soft carpet and was a soft tree; but you know how these situations can make a person be a bit dramatic? And by a person, I mean me.)

Of all the ornaments, only three broke and needed gluing.

In terms of miracle, maybe not that noteworthy. But in terms of irony, it was a little off the scale. This was one of the broken ornaments:

Joy was broken.

Seriously?

Week One of Advent called us to actively wait, knowing that we need Jesus. Week Two called us be prepared and we talked about what that means in light of a messy lives that need God’s peace.

And now we add joy into the mix. Even if it’s broken and needs glue.

Traditionally (and here’s I’m about to sound like I know far more than I do), Week Three has a different color candle—pink— to show that we are more than half way through Advent.

Christmas, she is a’coming. Which means, Jesus, he is a’coming.

It also has a special name: Gaudete Sunday. Guess what, you probably already knew this, but didn’t know you knew it. Remember from the song O come, o come emmanuel and ransom captive Israel? The refrain is Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, oh Israel. Unless you sing it in Latin—which I don’t think I have, but I must have because sometimes I sing —Gaudete Gaudete Emmanuel murmur murmur (since I don’t really know Latin).

Gaudete means rejoice!

Too often I seem to have gotten the message that we rejoice when. When life is going well. When the dishes are done. When we got the raise. When all the money is in. When we have time.

But Mary, the mother of Jesus, reminds us that “the Mighty One has done great things for me.” This is why we rejoice. This is why we can have joy in the midst of our, to put it mildly, often less than ideal lives.

Problems with your ex? Rejoice.

Bills piling up? Rejoice.

Feeling lonely? Rejoice.

Church, or work team, or ministry team in crisis? Rejoice.

Child needing surgery? Rejoice.

Not because of those situations, but in the midst of them. I have a slight beef with people who have false emotions in reaction to real situations. People who are always sappy happy or turn too quickly to Christian-ese make me want to take two giant steps back and look for the nearest exit. Where is a good lament when you need one? A “God will smite you!” song? Here is why we can rejoice, God agrees this world is a hot mess.

But it’s a hot mess he dearly loves. His kingdom is breaking in. Kimberlee reminds us: “It is God who does great things, to be sure, as Mary herself proclaims, but how great a God we serve, that he would allow us, invite us, long for us to participate in his redeeming work in the world.”

Your joy may feel broken this year. Or it might feel sparkly and magical. Either way, Advent reminds us to be “joyfully aware of the presence of God.”

I used to hate the color pink. It seemed so stereotypically girly. Cliche. Yuck. But then the polluted air of Beijing ate holes in my corneas and I couldn’t wear my contacts after decades of being a contact wearer. I had to switch to glasses and on a whim bought a pair of pink glasses. Hey, if I have to wear glasses, I can at least protest by making them fun. It’s not that God wants us to see the world only through rose-colored lenses. No, he sees the real pain of this world, but he frames in the pink of his Joy.

Do you ever feel like joy might need some glue? This week, ask yourself: where can I rejoice? Where is pink woven into my world? May pink remind us to rejoice in who God is.

My name is Amy and I live in the messy middle of life. I have been Redeemed from permanent muck and live with the tension of the Already and Not Yet.