Songs of the Season #4

Almost there folks! By the way, in case you've haven't looked at a calendar, day planner, organizer or such - there's 3 days left before Christmas arrives. Are you ready for the big day?

There's a song out there that's NOT on this list called "My Grown-Up Christmas List" that talks about a world of no more lives torn apart and no wars to start yada yada yada. In my world, my Christmas list would simply be more time! More time to reflect, enjoy, enrich, savor and to be grateful for all that God has blessed me with beginning with the birth of Jesus. Rhetorical question, how many out there, just in the last few weeks, have read the first 2 chapters of the Gospel of Luke outside of church service? Or better yet, how many out there have stopped and reflected on these same chapters?

But be that as it may, in 3 days, the world will celebrate the birth of our Savior.

So back to the list. And what list wouldn't be complete without a tie. Just as I did with #5 and #6, this choice was an agonizing decision and rather than give myself a migraine, I took the easy way out and gave these 2 songs the number 4 spot on this list.

The first is a song written by Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley founder of the Methodist church, in 1739. Although originally sung to a different more solemn tune, English musician William H. Cummings adapted Felix Mendelssohn's cantata, written in 1840 to commemorate Johann Gutenberg's invention of the printing press, to fit the lyrics of Hark The Herald Angels Sing already written by Wesley to give the glorious music we now know and love. The lyrics are magnificent as it proclaims "Glory to the newborn King" and simply yet powerfully, extoll the purpose of Christ's destiny as the Messiah - "God and sinners reconciled!"

The next song is completely void of the pedigree that Hark the Herald Angels Sing has to offer. Of anonymous authorship, Angels We Have Heard On High, nevertheless, brings to life that one glorious night of our Savior's birth from the perspective of the heavenly angels.

This beautiful carol tells the story of Christ's birth, when the angel choir told the good news to nearby shepherds. The chorus, "Gloria in Excelsis Deo," reflects the chorus of the angel choir that long-ago Christmas night.

These two songs proclaim the good news of our Lord's birth then - and now. Just as the shepherds heard from the angels that one night thousands of years ago, so do we hear God's good news everyday of our lives through His grace that lives on.

Let's stop and reflect on Luke chapters 1 and 2 and exalt in the transformation that Christ gives our lives.