Luke 1:54 (TEV)
“He has kept his promise he made to our ancestors, and has come to the help of his servant Israel.”
So, where are you going to find joy? Jesus’ mom knew! Mary’s song, in Luke 1, should help.
Didn’t think Mary sang? She could; joyously. She’s singing some traditional scripture, but with a fresh treatment. Mary is riffing on a theme (maybe even a tune?) from music by her ancestor (and namesake! Remember Moses’s big sister?) Miriam:
Exodus 35:21 (TEV) “Sing to the Lord, because he has won a great victory; he has thrown the horses and their riders into the sea.”
Maybe Moses has dignity; but Miriam makes an impromptu arrangement for dancing, with tambourines! An instrument made for packing on the Exodus road.1
Mary’s joy is — in what? God! He mopped the floor with the Egyptians; and he’s cleaning house, again. Let that get your joy stirred up! As Augustine said, “the song of Miriam should be our song too.”2 So, why not us?
Perhaps when you were younger, you thought Christmas joy lies under a tree? According to Jean Shepherd, we might find either babyish bunny suits, or toy BB guns: but perhaps not both!3
When she got to Bethlehem (Luke 2:6) could Mary have thought she’d opened the wrong Christmas package? Not likely! When they arrived, the shepherds reported that the angels were singing – like she’d been doing, earlier.
By bringing Jesus to the stage, God was doing what he always was; keeping promises, helping people, and keeping it real. Small wonder Mary gets to solo in God’s big Christmas production. And you can dance to it, too! In Jesus, a savior is born…
Okay, we don’t know the original tune to Miriam’s song or, for Mary’s updated version. Musical notion hadn’t been invented yet! But Joy is available. It’s a tune that’s “a Christmas icon in North America among millions”4 in Issac Watt’s hymn (Georg Friedrich Handel-inspired, but arranged by Lowell Mason), “Joy to the World.”
Listen to a dozen renditions of “Joy to the World” at this link. Neither Miriam nor Mary would recognize the tune (born too early!); But Watt’s lyrics paraphrase David’s Psalm 98; and that one, Mary would know and enjoy!