Christmas music, since I was a little girl, has always been one of my favorite things about this season. I can remember plugging in my mom’s little cassette player and putting her cantata cassette in, pushing play and then moving the step stool over to the vacuum cleaner using the handle as my microphone! She really got a kick out of it. Those were the days in which I had NO fear! I knew EVERY word and during her performances each Christmas sang right along in the pew…many of which I still think of today.
It could be Handel’s Messiah or the same old Christmas hymns sung a thousand times over. The bells, the chimes, the full orchestras and choirs…or just the sounds of my sweet little babies bellowing (at the TOP of their lungs!) Gloooo-o-o-o-o-ooooo-o-o-o-o-ooooo-o-o-o-o-ooooria!!!! I LOVE IT! I can’t get enough. Oddly enough while I don’t decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving I always bust out the Christmas music the 2nd week of November or so to really get my heart ready and in the thankful and reverent spirit of Christmas because 30 days just isn’t enough. I need a little head start. Not that It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year or Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree or chesnuts roasting on an open fire don’t get me in the mood…but nothing like Angels We Have Heard on High, O Holy Night and O Come All Ye Faithful…O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Hark the Herald Angels and The First Noel.
Just as the Christmas Story from the books of Matthew and Luke never get old and God always bring out a new aspect for me to ponder and wonder and realize each year…so is it with Christmas carols. Every year it seems God shines His light in my heart through a word or phrase and as I listen I think in a new a different way about the birth of our Savior.
The Lord seems to be picking apart Joy to the World for me this year. Little phrases from it seem to stick like never before…repeat the sounding joy…and heaven and nature sing…He rules the world with truth and grace…let every heart prepare Him room…and of course…Wonders of HIS Love! The joy that He is overflowing from my heart started that very first Christmas night with the birth of Jesus and can be seen through all of creation is the same joy that fills a new believer that experiences the love of Jesus for the very first time…and ignights in the soul of one who was all but lost…and unites believers and followers of Jesus all across the world! It’s the same joy to the world that makes us marvel at the wonders at His love. I just can’t get enough and want to repeat it over and over.
Music has always been a way in which I have felt God speak to me. It’s only been in recent months however that I have really felt…even though I’ve been singing my entire life…from singing into the vacuum to singing for hundreds…for the first time I have really worshiped…from my heart. Let go of hindrances, fears and anxieties…especially since falling ill…about being perfect and pleasing to Him…or to others. What He has shown me is that if my heart is in the right place and I make it about Him…it doesn’t need to be perfect in my mind or anyone else’s…because it isn’t about me…or anyone else but Him. I guess I’m finally starting to really respond…I’m just sorry it took so long to realize my audience is simply One.
This morning I had the privilege to worship with ladies that are very special to me and sing many of my favorite Christmas songs. I wish we could do it all over again…and again…and again…and repeat the sounding joy from the Spirit within me that just never seems to get old no matter how many times I feel it! I hope one of your favorite things about Christmas is the music, too. So…what’s your favorite Christmas carol?
Wonders of HIS Love 