Last year, a friend asked me how things had been. It was following a very bleak time. Struggling to find the right words, in the moment, I found myself saying, ‘It’s been a joy’. I somehow knew what I meant. My friend, I thought, did look a little puzzled.

I wonder how often we use the word joy – it’s certainly a much-used word at Christmas. We’ve probably said or sung it many times in recent weeks: ‘Joy to the world the Lord is the Lord is come’, ‘joyful all ye nations rise’, ‘glad tidings of comfort and joy’, familiar words from well-loved carols heralding glad tidings of the Saviour’s birth. With hindsight, we have the privilege of understanding the extraordinary world-changing joy of this event, it’s why we’re celebrating and worshipping week by week after all. At that moment though, there would be little physical joy in the context of a stable, the political context of Roman occupation, the local rule of Judaea by Herod the Great, amongst a people longing for the Messiah to deliver them. Yet, here’s the baby, God’s son, and exhausted Mary finding the energy to ponder in her heart. I wonder if she was remembering her own prophetic response to the angel, ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord…’

Back to that conversation with my friend and my response to their enquiry. I’ve been reflecting on the word ‘joy’. I think for me 2025 was a year of finding joy. But not in the popular sense, not the sheer ecstasy, hysteria, indeed, balletic dancing, jumping and near operatic singing, following a 450 gram, 70 cm circumference ball hitting the back of a net, nor the joy of anticipating Christmas, the lights, the shops, the food, the traditions.

All this is wonderful, but what happens to joy when circumstances, surroundings, life events, world news, cause such pain? What is joy? The word appears many times in the bible, more in some translations than others- up to 250 times in the NIV, and often in anticipation of the Messiah, often in times of turbulence and peril.

Recently I came across this: ‘Some have likened joy to be a flame enshrined behind a glass lantern, no matter how hard the wind blows, the flicker stays intact’.

This surely is the baby, the light of the world, born in turbulence, yet, joy to the world, eternal love, joy, hope, peace, Emmanuel, God with us.

May we each know the joy of the Lord as our strength this coming year.

Mel Adams