JOY for Christmas

A few days ago while walking Megatron in my neighborhood, one of my neighbors Mary was walking to her home.  We walked for about 10 minutes talking about the Lord sharing stories on how we came to know the Lord.  It was truly a JOYFUL conversation.  

We arrived to her home, in the yard were the letters JOY.  Mary told me the meaning of those three letters was J for Jesus, O for others and Y for yourself.  Amazing, I have never heard that.  We seek Jesus first, others second and lastly ourselves.  

Looking back through the scriptures, one could say Jesus three letters would be GOH.  First he sought God, second he served others and lastly Himself.    Today, we celebrate the birth of Jesus to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem.  

I wrote in my last piece "Fruits of  the Spirit (part 3)" about a little known verse about JOY found in 2 Corinthians 8:2.  Paul and Timothy are talking about the churches in Macedonia where it reads "How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality."  The churches of Macedonia lived the "JOY" piece as verse 5 continues "5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

The church of Macedonia understood that Jesus came first with others second.  They lived the message of JOY even in times of great trials of afflictions and deep poverty.  My friends in India know deep poverty as last year I was preparing for a trip to Chennai, India to meet my brothers and sisters in Christ.  

My last day in Chennai gave me a look into the depth's if poverty.  A woman was sleeping on the cement sidewalk with a young girl of maybe 2 to 3 years old leaning against the wall as she sat next to the woman sleeping on the cement.  the great memories of JOY and fun are overshadowed by the depths of poverty.  

It truly stings to see the plentiful harvest of my own home in Houston, TX when you look at the extreme opposites others face daily.  I have seen similar things in my travels to Brasil where young kids, with only the clothes they have on, view TV for the first time. Their eyes glued to the screen in excite and awe.  

At the same party, a young girl, probably 10 to 12 years old, and I played volleyball for hours.  She had a purse around her shoulder the whole time we played, almost like she was guarding her most prized possession.  What was inside this purse that was so valuable?  It was time for cake, we stopped playing volleyball.  She opened the purse to pull out two comic books where she started to look at or read them.  Her prized possessions were comic books.  

I noticed she did not touch her cake.  My brother in law came over, I asked him why so he asked her.  She said that she did not want to try the cake because she would like it and wanted more but her parents could not buy more if she liked it so she would rather not try it.  My brother in law told her it is ok, he will give her another piece.  She ate the cake for the first time in her life.  My brother in law asked her if she liked it, she shook her head  yes.  People throw away more cake at a birthday party than this little girl has ever had in her life.  

The JOY to serve Jesus and others is the burden we share together.  To help the widows, the homeless and the orphans.  To give to those in need, not just today, but everyday.  Jesus gives each of us the opportunity to share his JOY and to give His message of Love to the lost souls of this world.  I count it a JOY everyday to be given this opportunity.  Do you?  Merry Christmas.