Day 6, Singing thru Christmas

Luke 1:46-47
⁴⁶ Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
⁴⁷ How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!

Zephaniah 3:17
¹⁷ For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

Last night my wife attended our Grandson's Christmas concert. I smiled watching and listening to my two Grandsons who, among their classmates, sang various children's holiday songs. Even as the program ended with Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer I felt myself following along inside with the words that go back all the way to my own childhood.

Of course, Christmas has its own library of music. Adults remember "White Christmas", "Winter Wonderland", "Silver Bells", "The Carol of the Bells, and on and on we can go. We sing some Christmas hymns during Christmas: "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Silent Night", "Angels We Have Heard on High", "Joy to the World", and of course, "O Holy Night".

Sadly though, not many Christians are aware of the centuries of Christmas music that had been prepared for worship centered around Christ's birth.. Some of them come with deep theological reflection and speak a language of Biblical knowledge lacking in much music called praise today.

Music is the universal language of worship. I remember a man who once told me, "If you'd cut out the music you could shorten the service by 30 minutes"... Obviously, he didn't understand either the place of music in worship. The passage of scripture above from Zephaniah reminds us that even God sings...and his singing calms our fears.

Jonathan Edwards once wrote a book called "Religious Affections". In it he says that in conversion a person is changed from their indifference to God and Christ, to one, who by the power of the Spirit is moved to want to love and honor Christ with their heart, soul, and mind.

My friend, Sing...Sing and worship. Never mind that you sing out of tune, or that you don't have a lovely voice...Sing, and rejoice that God also is singing over you.

Peace

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