Let nature sing again

I sit in an office with a beautiful new window to the left of my desk. Through the window comes shatteringly bright rays of sun, particularly at this time of the morning.

It is a startling reminder of a couple of things:

1) I have no curtains.
2) Days with sunshine are so very much different than the dark, murky days we had so much of last week. The days with the sharp stab of sunshine are strikingly different than the ones with nature's hoodies pulled up over our heads.

It's the same thing, I think, with the way we look at life, through the lens of sadness as opposed to the lens of joy.

Look at one of my favorite seasonal hymns, Joy to the World.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.

Those words speak to me this bright morning. "Let heaven and nature sing." The writer, Issac Watts, perhaps one day looked at the bright rays pounding on the earth and sang a joyous tune. In 1719, he sang a joyous tune.

Notice what is not found in the hymn, written by "The Father of Hymns." There is no mention of shepherds, wise men, angels, or anything found in the Christmas story. That's because the hymn wasn't written to be part of the Christmas canon. The theme of the story is the second coming.

But you can't have a second, without a first.

It's based upon Psalms 98. Listen to the words of that Psalm from the NLT. "Shout to the Lord, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy! Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and melodious song, with trumpets and the sound of the ram's horn. Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King! Let the sea and everything in in shout his praise! Let the earth and all living things join in. Let the rivers clap their hands in glee! Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord. For the Lord is coming to judge the earth."

Watts wrote:
"Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!"
"No more let sins and sorrows grow..."
"He rules the world with truth and grace ..."

This morning, as we sail towards Christmas Eve (just a week from tomorrow), we sail toward the kingdom of God. We sail toward the joy that is inevitably provided by the one who was born to die for us, so that we might have joy, ultimate joy.

The strangeness of saving the world through the birth of a baby is behind us now. The plan has succeeded beyond what must have been our wildest dreams. The "glories of his righteousness and wonders of his love" come breaking through foggy glass and reflection.

He has come.
The first time.
Let us wait so impatiently for his coming again.

That's the way this whole heaven and nature thing works.