My oldest daughter had colic as an infant. She would scream for hours in spite of my best attempts to soothe her. She especially hated the car. Even short drives to the grocery store were torture as she screamed until her bald little head turned bright red. In the midst of my helplessness to calm her and on the verge of losing my sanity from her constant crying, I would sing. Not just any song would do, I specifically sang one song over and over again – “I’ve Got the Joy.”

You probably know the words, “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart, Where? Down in my heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy, down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart to stay!” The song is a simple one that used to be sung by children at summer camp. But in my case, it was my way of combating the total lack of joy my daughter was expressing, loudly. The song directly contradicted my circumstances.

During this holiday season, I am reminded of a similar situation. We sing the Christmas carol “Joy to the World,” heralding the birth of Christ with the words of the angels who proclaimed Him to the shepherds. Joy to the world that screams in unknown anguish with the unspeakable pain from the sin that ravages it. Joy to the world that suffers and dies without a Savior. Joy to the world that struggles to work for its wages and hungers for its abandoned Creator. Joy to you and me in the midst of our sorrow.

At Christmas, we celebrate the day God sang “Joy” and the sadness of our broken world made way for the Messiah. In our own lives, we all have things that seem to scream at us that we feel unable to change. Finances, relationships, plans and dreams are not always the way we would like them to be. With a word, God has called to us in our crying, “Joy.”

Joy to the world, the Savior has come.