The Weary World Rejoices

Home for the Holidays | Home of Shannon & Amy Lewis
December 1, 2020
A Beautiful View
December 1, 2020
Home for the Holidays | Home of Shannon & Amy Lewis
December 1, 2020
A Beautiful View
December 1, 2020

The temptation to join in the chorus of “thank the Lord this year is almost over” is real. Tempting to add my voice to all the others waiting for a new year as though the flip of a page on a calendar will change our world.

2020 – It’s a year our kids will tell their kids about.

The year of the pandemic. Riots.


But as we gather to sing carols that have been sung for dozens of years, the words remind me that we aren’t the first generation who feels tired out, worn thin and ready for something new.

It’s right there in the song we have sung at Christmas all our lives. ‘Oh Holy Night’. It takes four lines, but finally the songwriter gets to the point that we all feel.

“The weary world rejoices.”


The world has been tired for a long time. People have longed to feel a “thrill of hope” that would replace the dread of facing tomorrow. The promised savior the songwriter sings of gives the world reason to rejoice.

What do you do if you don’t feel like rejoicing this year?

Be mindful of the miracles.


Shepherds were visited by an angel.

The wise men saw the star.

Somewhere out there is a miracle waiting to be born that you’re called to see. We’re wisest when we follow the star that leads us to the miracle an entire world is waiting to see.


Be mindful of the miracles.

It may feel an impossible task in the day-to-day navigating of a wearisome world.

“The height of my joy is dependent on the depths of my thanks,” Ann Voskamp writes.


It’s been a few years since I’ve turned the pages of her book that turned the weariness in my soul to a joy that I hadn’t realized I’d lost.

“As long as thanks is possible, then joy is always possible …. The holy grail of joy is not in some exotic location or some emotional mountain peak experience. The joy wonder could be here. Here in the messy, piercing ache of now, joy might be – unbelievably – possible.”

Is it possible to find joy even in the remaining days of 2020?


Be mindful of the miracles.

So I’ve started my list again. The one that reminds me of everyday miracles right where I am.

It’s a simple list forcing me to take joy in the here and now instead of waiting for a moment when the world feels right side up again.


The bright moon’s crescent in a dark night sky.

Six-year-old’s smile as he rides a bike in the rain.

The holding of hands around the dinner table in a pause of thanks before our meal.


Yellow flowers in a deserted field.

Spiced cinnamon sprinkles.

It’s a continuation of the list I started all those years ago. A list of things all around me that make me smile, give me joy, remind to give thanks for what I’ve been given.


Little things are on my list. A few big things. But mostly the things I’d forgotten to notice in the months of unthankfulness. Months when I forgot to look around me and be mindful of the miracles surrounding me. Miracles waiting for me to take notice.

In a month where so many people write lists of gifts they’re longing to have, I’m making a list of gifts I already have.

Gifts I didn’t notice until I started jotting them down.


Finding a thankfulness I forgot.

Being mindful of the miracles that are already mine. POV