JoySample

Joy That Jumps

Have you ever noticed the physical effects of joy when it overtakes a person? Concert goers, children opening a gift, and athletes winning championships all have the same thing in common: their feet leave the ground.

Overwhelming joy is difficult to contain in our human bodies, and this is the kind of joy we read about in the Christmas story.

Elizabeth enters the scene when Mary, her cousin, visits her just days after her conversation with the angel, Gabriel. Elizabeth finds herself barren in a culture where the utmost defining factor of a woman’s status in society is child-bearing and child-rearing. Because of this, Elizabeth, similar to Mary, is well acquainted with the heaviness of shame. Elizabeth and her husband, a priest, and leader within their community, are both very old and have suffered many years of disappointment and disgrace.

Until now...

Six months before Mary’s visit, God had performed yet another miracle when he opened Elizabeth’s womb. Now, Mary shows up, and the moment Elizabeth hears her cousin’s voice, she’s filled with God’s Holy Spirit! His Spirit instantly gives her a supernatural understanding of the situation at hand. Mary is with child, and the baby in her womb is the long-awaited promised One, the Messiah.

Elizabeth can’t contain herself. In tandem with Elizabeth’s sensitivity to God’s Spirit, the baby she is carrying leaps within her! Elizabeth erupts in a joyful greeting and verbally confirms what the angel had said.

When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy!

A lifetime of infertility would have drained Elizabeth’s emotional tank. Yet all the feelings of failure, exhaustion, and shame were no match for the joy that overwhelmed her that day. Jesus brings unparalleled joy when he shows up. Joy so deep that it swallows up the pain, so true that it tears up the lies we believe about ourselves, and so overwhelming that it makes us jump.

Reflection: Is the pain of a past experience overshadowing my joy in Christ?

Prayer: Jesus, in you, I find the answers to all my questions and the fulfillment of all my needs. I see how your presence alone brought supernatural joy to Elizabeth and the child inside her. Help me experience your joy when I look to you instead of my circumstances.