The Weary World Rejoices

It’s a Christmas Eve night of freezing temperatures, strong frigid winds, and driving snow. I sit inside with my family as we talk and listen to the radio. Now I’ve always been a fan of Christmas music. I know the words to most of the common hymns and can even stutter through a few in Spanish. But I often fail to think about the lyrics as much as I should. And other times I probably think about the words too much.

I guess that’s what happened tonight. The song was “O Holy Night” and the line that stuck out the most to me was “the weary world rejoices.”

I thought of all the times I had been weary. Times when I had been exhausted: physically, mentally, and even spiritually exhausted. Wiped out through hard work, stresses, or overall just trying to do too much. I’ve had a lot of weary moments while I was in Mexico, and of course I had a lot when I was in college. I think we’ve all had weary moments all throughout our lives.

I think the world is weary also. It has been worn down by war, arguments, and contentions. The battle of knowledge, ideas, and beliefs has exhausted it. The seemingly overabundance of hate, pride, entitlement, and anger, and the apparent lack of kindness, acceptance, and love has made this world that we live in very weary indeed.

But as the song says, this world can rejoice. And the reason that this world can and should rejoice is because of the true reason of Christmas. Because Christ was born in a stable, because He lived a humble life, and because He lives, we have reason to rejoice

The reason for our hope is Him. The reason that we can have joy is because of Christ. The reason we no longer need to be weary, the reason we can feel whole again, the reason we can be refreshed and content again (even if the rest of the world is still weary), the reason for this renewal of body, mind, and spirit is our Savior, Jesus Christ.

The weary [soul] rejoices