The Sounds of Christmas
When you think of Christmas sounds, what comes to your mind… Christmas carols, jingle bells, crowded malls, laughter????
I have a Christmas playlist that I try not to listen to until after Thanksgiving, but sometimes even in the middle of summer, I will start it because, to borrow a phrase from a famous song, “I need a little Christmas now!” My playlist doesn’t contain your traditional holiday songs, instead the selections recount the days and weeks leading up to Jesus’ birth. One of my favorites is, “One Quiet Moment.”
This song tells the story of Joseph and Mary as they await the birth of Jesus. Each time I hear it, I am struck by the realization that when both Joseph and Mary, separately, chose to accept their parts in God’s master plan of salvation, it was in a quiet moment. Likewise, when Jesus was born, there wasn’t a loud, regal fanfare heralding the coming of the King of Kings, it took place in a shepherd’s cave, in a quiet moment.
Put yourself in that moment. What are the sounds that you hear? The crackling of a simple fire, hastily constructed by Joseph, to take the chill out of the air. The rustling of hay and the lowing of the livestock that were suddenly disrupted by the arrival of these two strangers. The moans of Mary as her body progressed through the labor pains. The nervous breathing of Joseph, as he waited, helpless, for the arrival of the Son of God, who would be placed in his care. Then, Mary’s final, straining groan as she delivered, and the first gentle cries of the babe, the Messiah, the Prince of Peace were heard.
These are the sounds of the first Christmas and a reminder to me of both the majesty and humanity of this season…the anxiety brought on by the brokenness around us and the eternal hope of God’s fulfilled promise.
With just a few weeks remaining before Christmas, I challenge you and myself in the midst of the hustle and hurry that the world has created for this season, to remember the words from the Book of Psalms, God’s original playlist. “Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth.” Psalm 46:10.
Enjoy the sounds of Christmas and remember the sounds of our Lord’s birth, including the joyous song of the angels as they proclaimed to a broken and hurting world, then and today, “ALL IS WELL!”