Grandma and Grandpa’s house during the holidays was wonder-filled. Thanksgiving overflowed with stuffing, pies, and football. In the 1970s and 80s, their Christmas tree was extra-packed with eclectic, heirloom ornaments and generous giving. Grandpa’s train choo-choo-ed beneath the heavy, low-hanging branches. Cousins, aunts, uncles, and numerous other kin gathered around the table. My grandparents’ rancher bubbled over with blessings!

Who does not appreciate the joyous blessing of gatherings and gifts? Giving gifts and receiving gifts are at the deep heart core of Christmastime. These same themes populate Henry van Dyke’s third stanza in his “Hymn of Joy.”

Thou art giving and forgiving
ever blessing, ever blest
well-spring of the joy of living
ocean-depth of happy rest

Thou the Father, Christ our Brother—

all who live in love are Thine
Teach us how to love each other
lift us to the Joy Divine

Kenneth W. Osbeck observed: “This hymn is generally considered by hymnologists to be one of the most joyous expressions of hymn lyrics in the English language.” Should that surprise us in light of such vivacious themes?

Exploring Divine Nature

Giving and forgiving spotlight God’s marvelous propensity to both graciously give and mercifully forgive. These are core to his divine nature. To give and forgive convey gushing love, readily reflected in these famous biblical lines: “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16, NLT).

The final line of this third stanza, “lift us to the Joy Divine,” draws us into immense anticipation and deep delight in eternal life—starting now and forever someday in new heavens and a new earth.

As with all gifts and their offering by the Giver, there is a blazing question for potential recipients:

Will you believe, receive, then pass it on?

It’s both simple and profound. Nothing more; nothing less.

The essence of God’s love is this astounding, joyous overture. In spite of our unloveliness—all our brokenness, sinfulness, and our world’s crumpled, crushed, cursed conditions—the Lord loved us and loves us still. His affection is passionate, ferocious, unstoppable, bubbling over for us.

With his next lines in “Hymn of Joy,” van Dyke extolled God’s nature as “ever blessing, ever blest.” And he punctuated the description of God’s divine character as “wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest.” Such word pictures express his opulence, the non-stop immensity of joy, and his overflowing blessing.

Essence of Divine Blessing

Blessed is something of a buzzword in broader culture during our century. Around Thanksgiving and Christmas season, people often hang wall art and other décor that spouts the popular catchphrase “Grateful. Thankful. Blessed.” What does it really mean?

Christopher J.H. Wright brings defining clarity to this oft-fuzzy, biblical word. “When God blesses someone, it normally includes increase of family, flocks, wealth or all three. God’s blessing means enjoying the good gifts of God’s creation in abundance.”

God revealed himself to Abraham, a wealthy man in a far-away land. This ancient patriarch of David’s people lived in a pluralistic, ridiculously raucous region, Ur of the Chaldeans. The LORD called Abram to leave his original homeland and go to a new land he would show him (Gen. 12:1-5, ESV). God promised Abram that he would bless him; he would be a blessing; others would bless him, and “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

A divinely blessed life is holistic. Wright further specifies that biblical blessing is both creational (material blessings and abundance) and relational (both vertical and horizontal). He explains:

Vertically, those who are blessed know who it is that is blessing them and seek to live in faithful relationship with their God . . . sincere worship, building of altars, prayer, trust and (in the case of Abraham at least) a deepening personal intimacy with God . . . Horizontally, the relational element of blessing reaches out to those around . . .

Wright spotlights the far reach of divine blessing through Abraham, including his family to come. In the bubbling overflow for all, he explains long-range influence:

Abraham must leave his own land so that blessing will come to peoples of all lands. Blessing here as a command, as a task, as a role is something that goes beyond the sense of creational abundance that we have seen so far in Genesis. ‘Be a blessing’ thus entails a purpose and goal that stretches into the future. It is, in short, missional. In fact, this is the opening command of the mission of God to restore what humanity seemed intent on wrecking, and to save humanity itself from the consequences of their own wicked folly.

This promised blessing is inextricably linked with the love of God that overflows to us in the person of Christ Jesus. His bubbling blessings then move through us to more and more people in more and more places.

Back to van Dyke’s joyous lines, we can readily connect the dots. “All who live in love are thine.” We truly belong in God’s family, enjoying and expressing his loving blessings in all we do and say each day. We encounter bubbling joy as we selflessly give and lovingly bless others through our daily endeavors.

Now back to our blazing question about God’s giving, forgiving, and blessing nature. Will you believe, receive, then pass it on?

Let’s keep pondering our answer to that question. Let’s “live in love” all throughout this blessed, bubbling season.

Editor’s note: This article has been adapted from the author’s forthcoming book, Your OMNI Year: Step into all God has in store, which will be available in January 2025.