already (adverb) - before this time, before that time, before now.

It’s barely November, and I’ve been listening to Christmas music for the past week.

I know that for a lot of people, Christmas music before Thanksgiving is a terrible crime, and even those who don’t mind a little “Jingle Bells” before the turkey comes out of the oven are opposed to it before Halloween has even come.

I know it, because that’s usually me.

When it comes to the seasons, I don’t have a favorite: I just love the way summer cools into the mellow chill of autumn, and the way fall bursts out, then fades into the softened, grey-brown peace before the snow comes. I like the holidays that go with the seasons, each bringing its own mood, its own colors and sounds and smells and traditions. And I revel in each single, tiny moment.

So why is it that this year, I’m already thrilling to the words of Christmas carols? And I’m not even putting up a fight?

I think it’s because of what all the songs say. Secular or sacred, Christmas songs tell stories of expectation, of hopes fulfilled, and of the celebration that follows of those moments of realization.

My heart has been singing Christmas carols because I’m reveling in this gift of easy joy. There are some seasons when laughter comes easily, when your eyes crinkle of their own accord, and when the world speaks to you in gifts and graces. But there are also seasons when the clear-cut road turns to dragging mud beneath you, and your feet are so heavy that the moments of dancing come few and far between.

I am celebrating because I know that there’s mud ahead of me, but also grace, and right now is a moment of grace. Right now I am celebrating the way I want to spin on the wind like the last of the autumn leaves, sing like the unmatchable, silver laugh of jingle bells, and run across lawns buried in crystal feathers of snow.

I’ve come through a season of mud, and yet, from this end, when I look back on that season, all I see is the beauty of our Father’s faithfulness. And that beauty is the beauty that makes me, once again, fall in love with the world.

May grace that is bright, like the red and green of a gaily decorated tree, fill your heart. And may peace that is blue and silver like the holiest of nights fill you during this season of thankfulness, and the coming season of hope and fulfillment.