My family was a very musical family. My mother won prizes for her singing when she was a little girl and my dad had a big baritone voice. Both of my sister and I loved to sing. We would often spent hours on car trips singing songs to pass away the hours. During the month of December we would sing Christmas songs. It just seemed like a natural thing for us to do.
However when we were small, we often didn’t get the lyrics quite right. We didn’t understand all of the words and so naturally some mistakes were made. We sang Hark Harold the Angel Sings. The only hail we knew fell from the skies during the thunderstorms of summer and so Hail the heaven born prince of peace we sang sail. They were innocent mistakes made by us children. But I still think we got the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas was a time of great joy and celebration and we were offering our praise to God albeit with slightly different lyrics then were originally written.
To me Christmas is still a time of music. For instance if you were to put 100 people in a room and ask them to sing together without words or music in front of them, I’d hazard a guess and say that almost everybody would know how to sing Happy birthday. Almost as many could sing Jingle Bells. Then Frosty the Snowman. Then Silent Night. Then Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Also in the top 7 would be the national anthem and then maybe God Save the Queen. Even though the world is much more diverse, thanks to tv commercials, non stop Christmas carol stations on the radio, and musak at the stores, Christmas music is still very much on people’s minds.
Maybe this is a good thing. Of course Christmas is more than about a few traditional carols, or silly novelty songs. Of course Christmas is something much, much more. But I think in the coming together in singing, we find grace, and peace, and harmony. We learn to support each other. We learn that we can do more together than we can apart. In singing together, we model what the Christmas story is all about. So listen and join him as Harold the Angel Sings. Together we can find God’s love. Blessings.
Note there will be no Confession next week. Have a blessed Christmas and the happiest of New Years.
