This season is heavy with expectation, full of adjectives like holly and jolly, merry and bright. It is, after all, the “most wonderful time of the year.”

We gather loved ones and break bread around tables of abundance, exchanging gifts and hugs. We sing and celebrate and give thanks.

The significance of the season, indeed its very reason, has mingled and morphed into culturally curated experiences and expectations of excess.

Yet once we leave the innocence of childhood we realize that Falalalala no longer does justice to this holy season.

No. With the wear and tear of time and age, perhaps we find more truth in the borrowed phrase from O Holy Night:

The weary world rejoices.

The holidays have a way of reminding us of what we no longer have, and of that which is (still) missing. Rejoicing becomes a holy collision of loss and grief and longing with hope and peace and love.

For, it is the weary who know that praise is often offered as sacrifice. The ones who have endured and persevered and somehow made it this far understand, perhaps better than anyone, that rejoicing requires a refocusing of hope.

Whether extended through cheer and praise, or released with outstretched palms and tears of heartache, rejoicing is a choice. It is a choosing to look beyond the abundance or lack of here and now, believing in that which will one day be set before us.

To be holly, jolly during this season is nothing more than fleeting emotion, but to rejoice, regardless of circumstance, is a deep spiritual act of worship.

Let’s not confuse the rejoicing in this season with the hype of what we have created. The lights and merriment are no substitute for truly remembering the weight and significance of this season.

Jesus. The long awaited birth of the savior, the fulfillment of every promise. Jesus.

If you find yourself weary during this season, may you experience the thrill of hope that caused the very world to rejoice all those years ago. The same hope that fulfills our every longing even today.

Whatever emotions find you during the holidays, I pray that your days will be filled to overflowing with rejoicing in the hope and love that give this very season its meaning.