Rejoice!

It’s a word we hear and see used frequently at this time of year.

I was up about 3 am the other morning and found myself rereading the narrative of the Christ’s birth in the writings of Dr. Luke and his colleagues.  The word rejoice caught my attention.  I decided to investigate it a bit further.

We hear the word rejoice in the lyrics of our seasonal music, it may appear on your Christmas cards, I’ve even seen it on store windows.  But what does rejoice really mean?

I’m an old country boy, and when the letters “r,” and “e,” are found at the beginning of a word it seems to imply that I may need to do it again.  Let me help you with this thought.  We have words like remake, repaint, redo, return, review, renew, to mention just a few.   And there’s this from the Google: 

1. make (something) again or differently.

For example:  “the bed would be more comfortable if it were remade”

Do you get my drift?

But before we go too far, you should know “joice” is an actual word even though your spell checker may not like it. It’s even a valid Scrabble word.  It means joyous. (A disclaimer: My lovely Scottish wife is named Joyce.)

The Google helps us yet again with “rejoice.” Rejoicing comes from the verb rejoice, which is rooted in the Old French word rejoir, a combination of the intensive “re” and “joir,” with the idea of “be glad.” A definition of rejoicing then could be a feeling of great happiness.”

I could not have said it better myself.

I further discovered that rejoice is very similar to the words translated “grace” and “joy.” This puts a whole new meaning on the word rejoice. It’s not just “showing great joy or delight” (dictionary definition) in something, but also carries the idea of experiencing God’s grace.  And then we have this; Paul uses this word rejoice a lot in his writings to the church at Philippi, words written from a Roman prison!

But allow me to stay with a Christmas thought.

For me, rejoice carries the idea of, I need to do this joice thing again, and maybe even again, till I get it right!

Here’s your takeaway from today’s wander: “When we genuinely rejoice with others it allows us to grow. Growth equals maturity. Maturity brings about wisdom and discernment. Wisdom and discernment makes for better life choices which yields better life results.”  (The Google again)

I’m certain I didn’t get this joice thing right the first time, but I’m going to try it again till I do get it right.  I’m going to re-joice!

Have a very Merry Christmas Season and rejoice at every opportunity.

Thus ends your lesson for today.  I threw in that old French language stuff at no extra cost.  You can rejoice in that.

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