The Weary World Rejoices

All you have to do to realize how terrible things are in the world is to turn on the television. Not having TV or internet at my apartment, I rely on the TV at work to inform me of what is happening. During lunch in the break room, I hear and see snippets of breaking news throughout the world. Most of the time, it is rather devastating. In the past twelve months alone, school girls have been kidnapped by extremists and many have not yet been returned; fighting at Gaza has led to many deaths and broken families on both sides; even in my own country of supposed freedom and safety, the lives of two men were taken, leaving rifts between race and politics, police and people. These happenings were the first three to enter my mind, but there have many, many other horrible situations and circumstances throughout the world.

The other day, I was listening to my favorite Christmas song Oh Holy Night when the lyrics "the weary world rejoices" meant more to me than they had ever before.

Weary. What a good way to describe our world today. We are weary from the despair and damage that runs rampant. Weary from the endless wars and stolen children. Weary from disagreements that lead to arguments that result in families torn apart. Weary from race dividing our country. But what makes us most weary is the fact that none of this is new. Yes, these are very specific incidents for this year, but our world has been suffering on and on since the beginning of time. We are worn down by the ceaseless tragedies that plague lives every day and there seems to be no foreseeable end to this. So how are we to continue to live this way? How are we to rejoice as the song says? What do we even have to rejoice in?

Read the lyrics before and after “the weary world rejoices”: “a thrill of hope…for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn”. What do we find? Hope. Hope that the world will not remain weary. Hope that the morning will bring better and more wonderful things. What is the best part of the night? Knowing that morning is coming. It is only in the darkness that we can recognize light. We live in a broken and depraved world. There is no way we can fix all of its problems. But we can place our hope in the One who does promise to renew the world. He is the One who brings restoration. He is the One who allows the morning to come.

As the Christmas season quickly comes to an end and the new year arrives, find peace in Him who is the giver of hope, the bringer of joy. Who knows what this new year might bring, but we have the promise that, despite our seemingly endless weariness, we have a never ending Source of hope.