Joy to the World - But Not Yet

During Christmas season, we sing familiar hymns and I think we become guilty of not really even looking at the lyrics. I don't know how many times I have sang "Joy to the World" and realized most of it isn't even about Christmas or the virgin birth at all.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.

The first verse could apply to the virgin birth, but the last three verses clearly refer to the reign of Christ which is still to come. I think of what Paul says in Romans that "the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God"  (Rom. 8:19). Christ came into a broken world, but there will be a time when this broken world will be transformed, when "He comes to make His blessings flow". And that is worth singing about all year round.