Giver of immortal gladness, fill us with the light of day!

Artist- Cast of Sister Act 2: back in the habit...haha that's even embarrassing to write
Song of the day- Joyful Joyful

So today as I was leading worship songs for a group of wide eyed toddlers (in between their crying and fisher price Noah's ark playing) I found myself struggling for the perfect hand motions. Now I quickly learned that toddlers are much more interested in dancing out their emotions than singing them and though I could remember the interpretive dance for having "peace like a river" and "love like the ocean" I struggled for describing "joy like a fountain". Surpassing the notion that having "joy like a fountain in my soul" made zero symbolic sense to me. I for the life of me, could not come up with how joy looked. I was baffled for several infinite seconds till all I could do was jump frantically with a ukulele in my hands. And could tell by their faces and frenzy jumping that I made the right choice. However, later when I went to "big church" the thought was brought to mind again as we sang today's song (in a more folkish way). But the meaning of the word continued to baffle me. What does joy actually mean? It's bigger than happiness, mixed with content, but classier than ecstatic. And as I listened to the four verses of these elegant lyrics written hundreds of years ago, the fervent excitement behind the word began to make sense. And reminded me of the super cheesed out oh so 90s version in today's song. But before Jennifer Love Hewitt freaked me out, Lauren Hill won grammys then went crazy, and Whoopi was the coolest nun since Julie Andrews, I was a girl in uniformed private school, learning about being good and a God that didn't like when i was bad, this idea of what joy looked like totally blew the lid off my idea of god and the kind of joy he could bring. Lyrics like, "hearts unfold like flowers before thee, opening to the sun above." That is joy you can't contain, that's a joy that exists in strife, washes away darkness, a joy you have to jump and dance around (and apparently badly rap about) because no other hand motion can contain it. May that joy be yours today, and if it's not try and jump around with dancing toddlers, they tend to lead you in the right direction.



1. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee,
God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee,
opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness;
drive the dark of doubt away.
Giver of immortal gladness,
fill us with the light of day!

2. All thy works with joy surround thee,
earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
stars and angels sing around thee,
center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
call us to rejoice in thee.

3. Thou art giving and forgiving,
ever blessing, ever blest,
well-spring of the joy of living,
ocean depth of happy rest!
Thou our Father, Christ our brother,
all who live in love are thine;
teach us how to love each other,
lift us to the joy divine.

4. Mortals, join the mighty chorus
which the morning stars began;
love divine is reigning o'er us,
binding all within its span.
Ever singing, march we onward,
victors in the midst of strife;
joyful music leads us sunward,
in the triumph song of life.