Sing We Now of Christmas

by Bethany

Christmas music just seems to be synonymous with this joy filled holiday, so no wonder there are so many songs, both secular and Christian. 

Over the past years, it's been kind of a tradition for Becca and me to join our friends Jon and Emma playing Christmas music at the nursing home in town, and maybe a few other places. It's always a lot of fun, but with this year being a little different, Becca and I had to go solo. :) 

Don't worry, it's not permanent.

And I'll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.... just kidding, yes I am coming home for Christmas, but it will be a busy time going off to visit family, so we didn't think we'd be able to record a song together. 

I'll let Becca start us off on her darling new ukulele.

Sometimes though, we hear Christmas music so much during this season, we don't stop to consider what the words are really saying. While that might not be very important in a song like White Christmas, (no offense, Becca), to take a line from another Christmas song:

It's not just about coming home

To be with those you love

It's not all about the beauty

In the snow I'm dreaming of

It's about the cross

It's about my sin

It's about how Jesus came to be born once

So that we could be born again

It's about the stone

That was rolled away

So that you and I could have real life someday

Last week I was asked to play music for the coffee house outreach Camp does most every Saturday night. Since it was only a week before Christmas, I chose all Christmas songs, a mix of old and new, but tried to keep them all centered on Christ. While I was practicing "In the Bleak Midwinter", a song our grandpa taught us when Becca and I were little, and one I've sang hundreds of times I'm sure, the second verse stood out to me in a way it never had before.

Our God, heaven can not hold Him
Nor earth sustain
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign
In the bleak midwinter, 
a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ

It just struck me how incredibly awesome it was that Jesus, the Lord of heaven and earth, gave up everything to be born as a human baby, weak and helpless, and lived in this sin cursed world, and faced every temptation we do, to take the punishment we deserved so that we could have a relationship with the holy, all powerful God of the universe. 

That's what Christmas is all about, yet why don't I think about it more? 

A lowly manger, a feeding trough, held the Savior of the world that night.

Wow.

And that is why we should sing, not just at Christmas, but all year long, of the wonderful mercy and love God has given us.

How can we keep such a message to ourselves?

So, I guess it's my turn now. This is another of the songs I played for coffee house, but I filmed it before, during one of my practice times.  I've always like songs with a minor melody, even though it brings a bit of a melancholy feeling to the joyful words.

So, do you have a favorite song of this Christmas season?

Tell me in the comments!

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