Joy In The Unseen

1 Peter 1:8

The Christmas season has always been my favorite time of year. I start celebrating early, generally beginning the first of November, listening to Christmas carols and hymn’s, watching Christmas movies, and of course, reading A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. But over the last few years since my daughter has moved away, Christmas time is an even more joyous occasion because I know she is going to be home for several days and we get to make up for lost time in between visits. It is an inexpressible joy that you can’t explain, you just feel it.

This is the type of joy Peter is writing about. He says that it is “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” In other word it is a joy beyond words and so indescribable that he can only refer to it as glorious. What fascinates me is he is describing a love for one who says that his readers cannot see. Peter saw him, walked with him, ate with him, laughed with him and cried with him. He was there when Jesus worked miracles, when he was taken captive, and was there after his resurrection. There was no doubt many joyous occasions that he shared with Jesus in those thirty-three years.

Peter has the best of both worlds. Not only did he walk with Christ, but as the Bible teaches, Christ at this time of writing was walking in him. This was even more joyous because he knew that wherever he went and whatever he went through Christ was with him. There were times when Jesus was in the flesh that he would send Peter and the disciples to do certain task at which he stayed behind. But to experience the joy of Christ within him was far behind anything he could describe.

The depth of love that Peter and we ourselves who know Christ is one that unites us in a way that is much deeper than we could ever imagine. It is a love that produces a joy that resides in the depth of our soul and one that can only be there by the presence of him who brought joy to the world. It is not something that it seen but it is felt, and nothing can separate us from that love because it abides within us and goes with us even to the far reaches of the world.

How can we love someone we can’t see? It simple! Just as I love my daughter in whom I don’t get to see every day like I used to, I know that she is alive, doing well, and accomplishing God’s purpose in her life. I know that there is coming a day when she will come home this Christmas season and I will meet her at the door and give her a big hug. What a joyous time!

I also know that, though I can’t see Christ, he is alive and serving out God the father’s purpose in the world and in my life and that there is coming a time when he too will come to us and take us to his home and our home, he has prepared for us. What a joyous time that will be, even more joyous because then we will see him! “Oh, what manner of love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God!” (1 John 3:1)

Pastor Robby