I love the Christmas season; the whole thing. The lights, the decorations, the tree, the carols, family. Everything.

But mostly Jesus.

While attending a service last year and singing Joy to the World, a thought came to me. I saw four words of this song in a whole new light.

Heaven and nature sing, heaven and nature sing, let heaven and nature sing.

So many times, we sing the songs because they bring a warmth to our hearts, memories to mind, or just because we like the tune.

Those four words really jumped out at me this particular time because I thought of how Scripture speaks of that very thing: nature praising God.

Did you know that there are a lot of verses that talk about creation worshipping or praising God?

The ones that immediately came to my mind were Luke 19:40 where Jesus is being praised by the people and after the Pharisees told him to tell the people to be quiet, Jesus answered that been if they were silent, “the very stones would cry out”, and Ps. 19:1 “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands,”  and “…the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing; and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isaiah).

And there are many more!

The other thing that stuck out to me was the fact that in the song you say the phrase “let heaven and nature sing” three times.

To us that means nothing, but to God, it means everything.

Isaac Watts, the person who penned those words in the song Joy to the World, may not have known the important of saying something three times.

However, in Scripture, it is important. It represents divine wholeness and completeness. It also magnified the importance of something.

For instance, when the angels say “holy, holy, holy”, what it actually means in the original language is holy, really holy, and really, really holy.

Just thinking of those things gave me a new insight into that song that we sing every year and helped me sing for joy even more this Christmas season.

This year, don’t just go through the motions.

Actually think about the songs you sing, the traditions you hold and why, the people you are with, and the Savior we serve.

Merry Christmas!

–by Pam Rehbein