Rejoicing: Heaven Everywhere

The Christmas season is synonymous with parties and celebrations. It is a time for people to make merry and enjoy the goodness of life. It is a time for rejoicing. Rejoice is defined as "to make joyful, gladden," and the word is often used in Christmas carols. O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Good Christian Men Rejoice. O Holy Night. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Joy is the refrain of Christmas. Yet, rejoicing does not look the same for all people, and not everyone rejoices in the same way. I have been thinking about the Christmas story and all the characters a lot lately. What were they thinking? What were they feeling? Looking at the larger context, how did they respond? While I can only guess at the first two questions, the answer to the last question is that they rejoiced. For different reasons and in different ways. Many things were going wrong in Israel and with the world. Yet they rejoiced--not necessarily because of the current situation but because of the future gladdening of the whole of creation.

On this third Sunday of Advent we are Rejoicing. The King has come and will come again! Liberation is at hand and is coming. The world will no longer be the same. It is time to be joyful and to gladden our hearts. The King has come and will come again! Francesca Battistelli wrote and performs Heaven Everywhere. I like the song because it rejoices in the fact that we don't have to wait for everything to be made right. It is happening now. To hear the song, click here. The lyrics are below.

I hear the bells, they're ringing loud and clear
You can't help but love this time of year
It's Christmastime, there's something in the air
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

Somehow there's a little more of love
And maybe there's a little less of us
Or maybe we're just slightly more aware
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

Chorus:
It's the smile on a man who has finally found hope
It's the tears of a mother whose child has come home
It's the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

It's funny how it takes a holiday
To show us how the world could truly change
If we all took the time to really care
There'd be a little more of heaven everywhere

It's the grace that we show to a world that needs hope
It's giving our lives knowing they're not our own
It's the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

Bridge:
Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plain
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

It's the joy that we feel and the love that we share
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere
There's a little bit of heaven everywhere

Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plain

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