Is It Happiness or Is It Joy?

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it.  (Proverbs 22:6 ESV)

Forty pounds of “Plaster of Paris” and two sets of molds. That’s what Shirley Gerding and I purchased 50 years ago so that we could prepare a 6-figure nativity set for each of our twenty-eight-4th grade Sunday school students. We wanted to help them remember the real meaning of Christmas. 

Wow! Twenty-eight children times 6 figurines (28 x 6 =168). That meant that Shirley and I each had to pour 84 figurines as we each prepared for 14 of our students to make their nativity sets. The imperfect figurines would need a “do over.” At one point in the preparation, we both became a bit frustrated and maybe a bit discouraged. We seriously wondered if it was worth all this time and effort. 

When each of the nativity sets had been foiled and antiqued with black paint, the children were so proud and couldn’t wait to take them home. They really had done an excellent job. You might think that was that - the end of a successful 4^th grade Sunday school craft project.

However, 50 years later, a few of those 9- and 10-year-olds who are now 59 and 60 years old came to a funeral here at Eastridge last week in support of one of their fellow classmates whose mother had just passed away. What did those former students say to me? Each one of them said, “I still have my nativity set.”  Then I heard some heart-warming stories of the journeys of their nativity sets being lost then found or broken and repaired after a move. One story was quite hilarious. It was a story of a heartbroken former student bemoaning the fact that her cat had bitten off the head of one of the wisemen, but later all was well when a “glued on” head repair was successful. 

I’m not at all good at explaining the difference between happiness and joy, but I know it when I feel it. I was sad as I had known the friendship of that deceased mother. She had been a member of the women’s exercise class that I taught here at the church in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. She was one of the first people who came to see me after my husband died. Memories of those special times with both the mother and the daughter filled me with pure joy. 

Fifty years ago, we had no idea, Shirley and I, that our forty pounds of “Plaster of Paris” would travel such long and beautiful journeys. It is truly a blessing to know that the members of our fourth grade Sunday school class have been living such loving and caring Christian lives. That they continue supporting one another after so long a time is truly and wonderfully amazing.   

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You for showing us that there is both happiness and joy to be found in teaching children about Your Son. We thank you that those fourth-grade students have become true disciples of Our Lord, Jesus Christ. It is in His holy name that we pray. Amen.    

Judy Welch