{"id":6372,"date":"2013-12-13T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2013-12-13T13:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/?p=6372"},"modified":"2013-12-12T12:59:52","modified_gmt":"2013-12-12T18:59:52","slug":"joy-suckers-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/joy-suckers-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy Suckers Revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ID-10064229.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6373 aligncenter\" alt=\"joy suckers\" src=\"http:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ID-10064229.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ID-10064229.jpg 400w, https:\/\/jolenephilo.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/ID-10064229-300x198.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Joy Suckers<\/em> first posted on this blog in\u00a0 early January of 2013. With the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings upon us and Christmas celebrations about to begin, it seems right to post it again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>And the angel said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid; <\/em><br \/>\n<em>for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>for today in the city of David there has been born to you a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest, <\/em><br \/>\n<em>and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.\u201d <\/em><br \/>\n<em>Luke 2: 10\u201311,14<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Joy suckers. During the weeks before Christmas, the news was full of them.<br \/>\nPolio eradication workers in Pakistan killed by terrorists.<br \/>\nFire fighters in Webster, New York shot when they responded to a house fire call.<br \/>\nChildren and teachers gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow,\u201d the watching world asks, \u201ccould Christians rejoice over the birth of Jesus in times like these? Why did they feast and give gifts as though nothing happened?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u201cHow indeed?\u201d Christians wondered. \u201cHow can we celebrating light in the midst of such darkness? Shouldn\u2019t we sit in the dark and grieve instead?\u201d And so our guilty thoughts began, along with doubt and fear and self-loathing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Joy suckers, all of them.<br \/>\nWaiting to extract every bit of gladness from the hearts of God\u2019s people.<br \/>\nEager to settle on our shoulders a mantle of gloom and sadness.<br \/>\nReady to burden our hearts and bow our heads, so we succumb to dark despair.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Two thousand years ago, into a world as black as ours seems today, God sent his Son as a light in the darkness. <em>And the joy suckers could not comprehend it.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">They could not comprehend that God would allow a baby born in a manger to become a man who would be killed for doing what was right.<br \/>\nThey could not comprehend that God would allow the healer of the sick to die at the hands of terrorists.<br \/>\nThey could not comprehend that the Father loved the world so much, He willingly experienced the heart-wrenching death of his own Son.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">But two thousand years ago, <em>the Lord of hosts understood it all.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>He understood that on Christmas Eve of 2012, the families of two fire fighters in Webster, New York would need the assurance of a God who knew what it felt like to die for doing the right thing.<br \/>\nHe understood that on December 19, 2012 the loved ones of nine dead health workers in Pakistan would need the comfort of the Great Physician slain by an angry mob.<br \/>\nHe understood that on December 14, 2012 the parents of twenty dead children would need a Savior who, like them, had anguished over the death of a child.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The joy suckers couldn\u2019t comprehend such light, such love. But we, His broken children, can.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The entrance of God\u2019s light and love into our darkness is why we feasted with our families,<br \/>\nwhy we gave and received gifts, why we joined hands and sang carols. <em><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>Silent Night<br \/>\nJoy to the World<br \/>\nHark the Herald Angels Sing<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Because, when we raised our faces to His light and sang,<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>the darkness tried to hide. <\/em><br \/>\n<em>It trembled at His voice. <\/em><br \/>\n<em>How great is our God!<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Will you sing with me?<br \/>\nJolene<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">photo credit: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freedigitalphotos.net\/\">www.freedigitalphotos.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joy Suckers first posted on this blog in\u00a0 early January of 2013. With the first anniversary of the Sandy Hook shootings upon us and Christmas celebrations about to begin, it seems right to post it again. And the angel said to them, \u201cDo not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[237,667,1995,2381],"class_list":["post-6372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-christmas","tag-joy","tag-sandy-hook","tag-tragedy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Joy Suckers Revisited - Jolene Philo Staging<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Joy Suckers Revisited - Jolene Philo Staging\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Joy Suckers first posted on this blog in\u00a0 early January of 2013. 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