Scripture: 1 Chronicles 16:31-34
Let heaven celebrate!
Let the earth rejoice!
Let the nations say, click “The Lord rules!”
Let the sea and everything in it roar!
Let the countryside and
everything in it celebrate!
Then the trees of the forest
will shout out joyfully
before the Lord, because he is coming
to establish justice on earth!
Give thanks to the Lord
because he is good,
because his faithful love
endures forever.

Thought for the Day: By the time the Book of Chronicles was written, it’s likely the Book of Psalms was already complete and in the form we use today (more or less). However, when this same passage appeared in Psalms (check out Pss. 96, 105 and 106), the Jewish people were living in the Promised Land. By the time Chronicles is written, Jews have lived in diaspora (as they would for most of their history). Some scholars believe that this extended contact with other nations helped the authors of Chronicles develop a more universalist view of God, as Jews living outside the Promised Land spread monotheism to their polytheistic hosts.

During the Christmas season, I think it’s a good spiritual exercise for Christians around the world to remember that Judaism and the Jewish person of Jesus are the roots of our faith. The Jewish idea that there is only one God, and that God is all-loving, is fundamental to Christianity and Islam. In Chronicles, the authors beg their readers to celebrate life—all life, even non-human life. So great is God, and so great is God’s love for creation, that every single one of us should literally be jumping for joy, no matter what we call ourselves. No matter what we call each other. In fact, this song makes it very clear that all we are ever to call each other is beloved in the name of God.

Prayer: I dance, shout, and leap for Joy at all Your glorious creation, my beloved God. Help me see everyone I meet as a manifestation of your perfect love. Give me peace, grant me insight, and make me wise enough to feel the ecstasy of living in oneness with all Your creation. Amen.