Christmas Reflection: Music

In the next few posts, I'd like to focus on three aspects of Christmas that are particularly important to me: music, light, words and family.

In my mind, you cannot have Christmas without music. At least you can't have a proper Christmas without proper music. There are three kinds of Christmas music: songs that capture by their words or tunes (hopefully both!) the essence of Christmas; fun songs ("Jingle Bells", "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town", etc.) that are good for driving, for baking cookies and for otherwise lightening the mood; finally, there are Christmas songs that should be destroyed (this would probably be a pretty hefty list ... and everyone has their pet peeves ... contemporary Christian music is responsible for many that would end up on my list).

Here our focus is upon the first type of Christmas music. Music like this helps us to remember with our emotions the Incarnation of our Lord and Saviour.

When we listen to Handel's Messiah or beautiful carols from Medieval Europe, we remember the angels who broke the silence of the night with songs of God's glory. Music like this helps us to remember God's transcedent majesty.

When we listen to guitars play folk carols or children singing the simple songs of Christmas, we call to mind the scene below the angels: a baby in a manger, a poor peasant family, shepherds in the fields. The Word became flesh! The God served by multitudes of the heavenly host, the Creator of all things, a baby.

As you listen to Christmas music, perhaps you might pause and consider both the immanence and transcendence of God that echoes in our hearts this season.