Joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her king. Those are the words to the famous carol Joy to the World. When Jesus was born on earth he brought many emotions and feelings with him. But the one the Angels chose to express in their song to the shepherds was joy.
We all express joy in different ways, some of us run around screaming, some of sit with quiet contentment. In our story today Simeon chose to express his joy through a song or blessing. God had revealed to Simeon that he wouldn’t die before he saw Jesus, the savior of the world. He had been waiting his whole life for this moment. And how did Simeon express his joy in the moment he had been waiting for? He did it by praising and blessing God.
That is a beautiful picture of how we should express our joy, especially our joy of Jesus’ birth. We shouldn’t focus on ourselves, on the presents we get or how we feel. Instead we should focus on celebrating and thanking God for giving us his only son. So before we give or receive presents or eat delicious food, or however you celebrate Christmas, let’s first say thank you to God and rejoice because God sent us his son.
Activity: Have some hot chocolate or tea together and light the fourth candle of Advent, the candle of Joy.
Answer this question: How can you celebrate Jesus each day this week?
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