Unspeakable Joy

If you asked me 3 weeks ago how I would describe this holiday season this year, the very last word I would have chosen would be joy. This, being the first Christmas since my father died, I was expecting a rather rough go of it. But God gave me an amazing gift this year: The Gift of Joy.

A few weeks back, I had really been feeling gloomy and incredibly nervous that Christmas morning would consist of me crying into a box of kleenex. So I asked some friends of mine to pray for me and I waited. During that process, my mom flew in to spend the holidays with us and brought my long lost dog Sadie (whom we seriously missed). The holidays began to get in full swing and as I sat down at our Christmas Eve Service alongside my mother I had this overwhelming sense of joy surround me. It was the most amazing feeling to be totally at peace and... happy, on Christmas morning. I couldn't believe what a miracle it was!

It was such an incredible blessing to be able to have my mom with me, sharing stories and talking about our hopes for the future. Christmas is always such an amazing season where we celebrate Christ, but this year I was blown away by the amount of great joy He allowed me to have and how easy it was to truly CELEBRATE!

God didn't allow me to just "survive" or "get by", He knew I needed so much more than that. And I was so pleasantly surprised by the great gift of His amazing and Unspeakable Joy. I am so looking forward to this new year of Jubilee God has in store.