I’ve got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart
Down in my heart
Down in my heart
I’ve got the joy joy joy joy
Down in my heart
Down in my heart to stay.

When I was in our church’s youth choir, “Down in My Heart” was one of the choir’s favorite tunes.* Everyone could sing its melody, or something close to it. The first verse was easy to remember, and the littlest choir members delighted in shouting “Where?” between the ”Down in my heart” lines. Miss James, her hands often defiling and dismembering piano chords, accompanied us on the aged upright piano, while my mom gracefully waved her hands before us, keeping some rhythm and attempting to direct us toward the proper notes.

No one had to direct us toward the joy. We might have sounded like strangling cats, but we had the joy. We caught it in coordinated claps on the 2/4 beat. Everyone else caught it, too. Pure joy is contagious.

On a Sunday morning, the song startled some churchgoers to wakefulness. It uplifted many more. Joy brightened their faces. It prompted their voices to join ours. Some of the adults were more off key than we were, and the keyboard’s disharmony was often puzzling, but the child’s heart in everyone was filled with joy.

Joy is an honest emotion, a melody easy to catch, if you open yourself, mind and spirit, to embrace it. Little children grasp it in clapped hands and shouts and songs in the key of unconditional love. 

Big people should reach for it like children chasing snowflakes. Or imperfect choir members chasing the perfect note.

A little child can lead you to joy. Some say a little child once did. Remember that, sing off key, and celebrate.

“Joy in My Heart” was written by George William Cooke, 1884-1951 and copyrighted in 1926. The copyright was not renewed.  The song can now be found in more than thirty hymnals.