Christmas Music

I have been listening to Christmas music since the beginning of October.  I have to restrain myself from waiting that long.  There is such a variety of styles and songs out there that the month of December just isn't long enough to listen to everything I want to.  Don't ask me to pick my favorite song.  I have particular arrangements of different songs that are my favorites, such as the Drifters' version of "White Christmas", or Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby".  Then there are the sacred songs..."Silent Night"(In German, of course) and "Joy to the World".  I especially love some of the old English carols, like "The Holly and the Ivy", "Jesus Christ the Apple Tree", and "Tomorrow Shall be My Dancing Day".  Then there are some German favorites, "Kling Glöckchen, Klingelingeling", or "Leise Rieslet der Schnee".

Today as I was out and about, I was playing Mercy Me's Christmas Sessions CD.  They have an arrangement of Longfellow's "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" that is quite nice.  The year that this CD came out, some other Christian artists performed their own version of this song.  The lyrics are quite simple:


I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,
Of peace on earth, good will to men!

The third and fourth stanza are appropriate to the events that have happened in recent days.  We have witnessed several ways that hate can mock our ideal of peace on earth.  If we focus on these events, we can see the strength of hatred in our world.  Yet in the face of these events, we also witness how communities can gather together to support and love each other.  The families who were victims of the home explosion on the southside of Indianapolis have received generosity from the entire city.  The students of Sandy Hook elementary have been adopted by an entire nation.

The message of the song, "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep" is evident in the response of the nation to these recent tragedies.  Many would say that if God weren't dead or asleep, he would never have allowed such horrors to occur.  I can only respond by saying that we live in a fallen world, and God does not cause such events to happen, nor does he desire them.  However he has given us free will and doesn't control us.  He lets us make our own decisions and then we must cope with the consequences.

I believe that God uses such events in our lives, the good and the bad, to help us become the people he intends us to be. He uses our strengths and weaknesses to his glory.