“Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.  Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; let them sing before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.  He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” -Psalm 98:7-9

I love looking at the Christmas lights people put up around their homes.  It gives you something to look forward to, when it’s dark at 4 pm! They make such a cheerful light in the cold and early darkness of these winter days.  In the season when nature looks to be hibernating through the cold, these verses from Psalm 98 appear particularly striking. The “rivers clap their hands, the mountains sing for joy” because God “will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity”.  God’s blessings are abundant and God’s rule of the world is right; but we do not experience this fully now. The 3rd verse of our beloved hymn “Joy to the World” says this, “No more let sins or sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.”

The curse of sin and death is palpable.  We feel the grief and the pain of it continually.  Jesus comes to make his blessings flow into those places of pain and grief.  He comes to make his blessings flow into the hurt and heartache we experience from others and inflict upon them.  I appreciate the simile of our sin and sorrows growing like thorns in the ground. Thorns are difficult to extract from the soil.  If we don’t get to the roots of the problem we will be continually plagued with thorns. Where have the thorns of insecurity, inadequacy, loneliness, sin, grief, shame, or guilt infested the soil of your heart?  Instead of trying to hide them and pasting on a fake perfect smile, open your heart to God. Share those thorns and let him tear them out by the roots. The healing begins with confession. The Savior is waiting to start this healing process in you and in me.  Let’s open our hearts to the Lord and then we can truly rejoice in the blessings we receive.

God of joy, we need to open our hearts completely to you.  We confess the places of fear and shame, doubt in your love and provision.  We confess that we don’t rely on you for our needs, but run around trying to meet the needs of all on our own.  Root out those thorns in our lives and in our hearts and give us opportunity to rejoice once more in you. In Christ we pray, Amen.

Rev. Hanna Peterson Shearer