Tonight and tomorrow are days for joy, and peace, I think. So instead of talking, I'm going to listen; instead of writing anything for you to think on, I think I'll just post a few lovely Christmas carols which I think any one of you, no matter your stance on Christmas will enjoy.

So, here goes....


                      


                      

         


                             

I wish you all, Friends, Enemies, Good and Bad alike, A very merry Christmas.

    Bells give a sound that is very evocative. They are rung at both funerals and weddings. Bells can promote either sadness or joy. They either peel mournfully, or sound merrily.

   One of my favorite Christmas carols, "Ding Dong Merrily on High,"  speaks of the bells which are rung in honor Christ's birth on Christmas day. I don't know if there are anything like bells in heaven, but if there were, the song suggests that they would have rung on that most joyous day, as also the sky was riven with angels singing. The song goes on to say that even so here on earth let the bells be rung and the people sing.  Finally, the writer urges the ringer to ready his chime, and the singer to beautify his rhyme.

   If I am to be frank with you all I must admit I don't have anything else to say to you all today, but as you get ready for Christmas, do enjoy this joyful carol!


Enjoy Christmas eve eve!

  What is the one thing that makes winter beautiful and fun, good people. The answer is contained in one word: Snow!
   I believe I've mentioned before that Christ was probably not born in the bleak midwinter as the songs tell us, however, I think Winter a fitting metaphor to blend with Christ's birth. The air is cold, the ground is hard; all the world is a slate gray and a drab green, until the snow falls. One, dazzling white flake at a time, the bleak grayness is frosted over. Each misshapen branch is clothed in raiment which makes it beautiful. So too when Christ, falls upon our hearts. All our ugly, bare, misshapen sin, is covered over with His dazzling beauty. So it was also on that normal night, winter or no, in far away Bethlehem. All the world was sighing over the bleakness in which sin held it in an ever downward spiraling orbit, but when the virgin gave birth to a child and laid Him in a feeding trough, it was then that all the bleakness vanished, in the dazzling brightness of the hope of the world. "The people that sat in darkness saw a great light, and the people that dwelt in the shadow of death, upon them a light shone."

  This season, as you are tempted to look out the window and sigh because of the gloominess of it all, remember that the snow has fallen in your heart and taken away the much more frigid bareness within you. Then go make yourself a cup of hot cocoa!

  For those of you who live in the upper united states and have snow, thank God for its beauty and for His even more beautiful gift to mankind as you tromp through the glorious powdery whiteness.

    Friends, all of us have hearts of bleak winter with no snow and no Christmas. Christ sends his righteousness which covers us like a comforting fleece blanket, and one day spring will come when He resurrects us to new life.

   Enjoy this lovely Christmas carol by Christina Rossetti.



                            

       Christmas is almost here. I'd love to hear your thoughts about what you look forward to most about this beautiful holiday.

   To say that the shepherds were frightened at the appearance of the angel is an understatement; they were terrified. I've often wondered what it was like, on that night for the shepherds, but I can be sure of one thing. When that angel first appeared it was heart stopping moment for everyone present.

  It is interesting to note that in the scriptures, whenever angels spoke to men, they had the exact same greeting. "Do not be afraid." Angels are unworldly, fearsome creatures, unlike the "Raphaelite" image most of us have in our heads of beautfiul ladies smiling sweetly and playing softly on harps or lutes. Of course none of us can know for certain until we've seen one ourselves, but from all evidences, it seems that angels and fright go together.

  The word angel literally means, "Messenger." Angels are God's announcers, they carry His dispatches from heaven to earth, and, perhaps, other places. The only other job we see angels performing is that of guarding, such as in Genesis where and angel with a flaming sword came down to guard the way to the tree of life.

  This image of reality definitely clashes with the idea of hearing angels "sweetly singing o'er the plains." However, one thing that is momentous about one particular angel sighting, is that it was the one instance where it seems angels revealed a bit of emotion.

 Read this familiar passage, Luke 2: 8-14, with me.

 ^"In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people;  for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

                            

As we remember the Angel's legendary sally to "certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay," let us, like the shepherds immediately drop what we're doing and seek out our Savior who is Christ the Lord.

    For centuries Holly has been considered the traditional foliage of Christmas along with ivy and mistletoe. I've always found the most fascinating thing about this plant being that it bears fruit in the winter. Bright Red berries, contrast with the green leaves and add a splash of color to the bare trees and gray, frozen ground.

   Jesus was probably not born in the winter, but I like to think of His birth as similar to the contrast of the bright berries against a very dreary world. There had been four hundred years of silence in Israel  preceding the incarnation. No prophets, no word from the Lord, no miracles. Plus, the Romans had taken over the land and, if anything, the Jewish people might have felt abandoned by God.

   But they weren't. It was at this bleak time in history, that God chose to send mankind the greatest gift He had ever bestowed; His only begotten son.

  This, good people, is indeed cause for rejoicing, this is the reason to be jolly on this season.

   May you be filled with His joy as you listen to the sprightly old Christmas tune, "Deck the Halls."



            

       As a child, life is very black and white. High heels and earrings are sinful because your mother doesn't wear them, and all processed foods are disgusting because you don't eat them. When I was younger, I had a loudly proclaimed prejudice against any music that was written after the year 1850, and because of this, I wouldn't admit that any song written then was good. Why, because I didn't like rock 'n roll, blues, jazz, or country. Thus, I determined because these styles had gained popularity in recent years, I must not like any music written in recent years. Of course I  didn't realize that I was committing a serious, 'part to whole' fallacy, and would only listen to the old stuff. What I didn't realize, was that some of the songs I already liked, such as "How Great Thou Art," and "When Peace Like a River," were written in the modern era, plus I began to realize that I needed to broaden my horizons when I caught myself reading the date of a song in order to determine whether I liked it.

     Now that I am older, I am willing to admit that it's the style I have a problem with, not the date of publication. Beautiful sons such as, "Because He Lives,"  "The Blacksmith of Brandywine," "Time to Say Goodbye,"  "In Christ Alone," and "O Church Arise," are only a few of the modern songs I have come to love. It's funny how God is the one who actually defines who we are, and we, in an effort to be our own master, just box ourselves in. It's not bad to prefer one thing over another, but we need to be careful we don't let the baby pour down the drain with its bathwater. I missed out on a lot of beautiful songs, because my pride wouldn't let me "like" a modern song. We tend to make generalizations in life, and then to be refuse to budge even when we're spiting ourselves. We so hate to admit we're wrong about something, we'll stand sulking in a corner, rather than just accept that we're not perfect and join in the fun.

  A certain Christmas song written in recent times puts it very well, when it says, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'till He appeared and the soul felt His worth."
   Christ came to free us from the self inflicted curse under which we were pining. So this year, as Christmas fast approaches, and some of us have bad Christmas associations, let us resist the temptation to throw out Christmas because of that. During battle, armies will often set up diversions in order to distract the opposing side while the real attack can gain an advantage. In the same way, when we suffer from the consequences of sin, the Devil will be all too ready to send out a diversion. For me, it was modern music. For others it will be different; government health care, gun control laws, poor sanitary conditions, not enough money, too small of a house, the football stadium at the back of one's property, whatever it may be, to try to get us to quarrel over diversions while the real problem, the snaring of men's souls into eternal damnation, keeps right on going.

  Friends, maybe Christmas was originally set up as a Christian compromise of pagan Saturnalia; perhaps some people spend far more time shopping for gifts than loving their neighbor, but don't forget that there is nothing wrong with having a season where commemorate the birth of the One who came to release us from the cords of Satan, and set us free into the brilliance of His presence.

  What diversions are you fighting this season? Consider it perhaps, while listening to this majestic, modern Christmas song, "O Holy Night."


            

   When I was younger I really didn't understand some of the words  to the carols very well. For example, in "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," I thought that in the first verse, the angels were talking to the shepherds. "well," I consoled myself, "I can only hand it to the men of the middle ages to call shepherds merry gentlemen."
   Of course this is not actually the case. The first verse is understood as a greeting, a salutation on Christmas day. Traditionally the song is believed to have been sung to the Gentry by the town watchmen on Christmas day; probably the first verse was meant as an apology to the nerves of 'growly' gentry who hadn't been woken up properly. As for who penned this ingenious piece of poetry, being that the first records of it come around the fifteenth century, it is rather hard to trace its author. The lyrics are considered to be the oldest of all "Olde" English carols and I like to think it was written by a clever night guard who had too much time on his hands in the wee hours of yuletide.
   Song artfully tells the story of the angels announcing Jesus' birth to the shepherds, and of their subsequent haste into Bethlehem to find this wond'rous child. At the end is an exhortation to rejoice and worship the Christ childe whom "all others doth deface."

  Simple, but sound in its message. However, startled the Shepherds might have been, or, in later centuries, the sleepy town Gentry, the singers in both cases brought tidings of comfort and joy to all who heard. A babe has been born who will redeem mankind from his curse of sin and darkness.

  Take a moment to enjoy this sprightly olde carol.


                                

   I remember the time when Daddy introduced all of us to the English Christmas carol, "Once in Royal David's City."  He showed us a youtube video of the king's college choir singers at the start of the famous Christmas Eve, "Nine Lessons and Carols" which they have held each year since 1919. A lone boy chorister sings the first verse, then the rest of the choir joins on the second, the third verse is sung while the choir walks down the isle to their places, and the audience and organ come in on the fourth stanza. I remember getting lost in the beauty of the singing in that marvelous cathedral with all those majestic harmonies blending as one magnificent voice. It filled the whole place with grandeur; especially with the organ, so out of place in a modern building but seeming to be part of the cathedral studs. It raised my soul to the roof and for days I went around singing "Once in Royal David's City," not necessarily because I liked the song, but because I could still hear the beautiful sound of King's College Choir. That was my first real introduction to choir music, I hadn't heard anything like it before, and since that time, "King's" is still one of my favorite choirs.

     Once in Royal David's City, though a child's song and correspondingly simplistic, is not as theologically void as it may at first seem. To be sure, Cecil Francis Humphreys Alexander wrote the poem for her collection of "Hymns For Little Children," which she published in 1848, however, the hymn is like a musing about Jesus' birth and childhood, ending with the joyful thought that someday with his own eyes he will see Jesus, through His own redeeming blood.

    When you remember the Christmas story, how many of us eagerly look forward to when we will see that babe in the manger with our own eyes? No longer a babe, but truly revealed as Lord of heaven and earth? The irony is, that even as a baby, he was still God. The creator of heaven and earth came down as a helpless infant and lay in a feeding trough? After hearing it as many times as most of you probably has, the complete wonder of it all can grow dim, but contemplate it again with me as you listen to this beautiful hymn sung to the tune, "Irby" by Henry John Gauntlett.


             


 Someday we will see Him, friends. Someday we will behold, with our very eyes, the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us.

     I don't know how many of you were as nit-picky as I was, but you may understand how, as a child, I was very concerned about the fact that everyone thought there were three wisemen when such a fact is not explicitly stated in Scripture. I even went to the extent of changing the words in the carols when I sang them. It was, "We many Kings," or, in The First Noel, "And by the light of that same star, many wisemen came from country far." You get the picture.
    I was also very particular about when the wisemen saw Jesus. It was not as a baby in a manger, but as a toddler in a house. When we used to set out nativity scenes, we wouldn't set out the wisemen, because they weren't supposed to be there yet.
 
      We all have our own pet views on things, especially in cases like this where all the facts are not given. We don't have any reason to believe that the men were kings, this deduction is made because they could afford rich gifts. There could have been as many as thirty or as few as two, but because there were three gifts, it has become tradition to think there were three magi. One thing we can all agree on, however, such an occurrence was an act of God, and foretelling of the importance of this child. Even king Herod feared this coming of wisemen, as a pointed threat to his kingship. There is no doubt that God proclaimed this child to be the Messiah, even as inconsequential as the circumstances of His birth appeared.

    There is a car repair shop which we often drive by which is quite obviously Christian. At Christmas they have a sign up which says, "Christ is Born, Wisemen still seek him."  Get it? I love such ecellent plays on words....but anyhow, it struck me recently how much of a true picture that actually was. Most people on the earth, completely missed the coming of Christ; the religious leaders who ought to have known, the kings, the rulers, the great men of that time. All of them didn't notice a thing, It was pagan, seers, who really shouldn't have been expected to know, who traveled for months to find the "king of the Jews."  But this showed them to be the real wisemen of the earth. They were the one's who actually understood God's message and welcomed it. They followed a star into unknown lands and gave their richest possessions to a carpenter's baby. They alone, saw with the eyes of faith rather than the blind man's eyes of human reason and worshiped the Son of God.

  Join with me now, good readers, and hear the beautiful "Golden Carol of The Wisemen."   It may be fictitious but it is applicable to each of us. When we see the light, let us not be like the fools who ignored it and lost their lives, but let us give up our comfort and luxury, and follow that star to the world's end if necessary, that we may gain immeasurable life.

   If so, we can joyfully say with the wisemen,


                              

  When Elijah fled from the wrath of Queen Jezebel and hid in a cave, the Spirit of God came down to him; not in the storm, or in the whirlwind, but in the gentle breeze which followed. I used to be skeptical about the legitimacy of my conversion, because It wasn't dramatic or causing any really different feeling inside of me. However, the truth is, that God is in the ordinary; He created it. It is only our craving flesh which, like the Athenians, constantly wants something new, something extraordinary, something stimulating.
  And yet, on that most glorious day, that day when all the angels watched in awe as the Creator came down and became a creation, it was really quite inconspicuous. On that day when, He made a greater sacrifice than any man could ever comprehend, hardly anybody noticed. In Egyptian myth, when Osiris the king and future savior of the world was born, all sorts of things happened and practically everyone knew about it, even a lowly woman fetching water from the well, suddenly cried aloud, "Osiris the king is born!"
   Was it so for our Lord? Not at all. In fact it may as well have been a normal night for most people. The only people who got alerted were a few shepherds, who probably wouldn't be believed if they proclaimed that they had seen the Messiah. However, not many people would be believed especially if they claimed that they had found this young king born to a carpenter, and lying in a feeding trough.

I used to hate learning Latin as a grade-schooler. It ended up that we four older ones learned it in pairs; Gabrielle studied with Timothy, and Arianne learned the despised language with me. One of the
jobs of the partnership was to drill the vocabulary flashcards with each other. The stack of words got pretty big, really fast and Arianne and I both dreaded these sessions. It was probably our own lack of enthusiasm which made it such a dole-some task, but none the less, we despised it. We must have been about nine and eleven, respectively, when, one day, as we were getting towards the end - usually we would take turns, one would drill the other and then switch - and it was my turn to translate and I was cross with Arianne because she was hurrying me along and making it quite clear that drilling her little sister in a dead language  was not something she had slated out for her ideal day. We were drilling from English to Latin, which tends to be a little harder than from Latin to English, and I was getting sulkier by the minute. Then came the tempting little opportunity, and I took it. The English side said "Joy, Gladness."
 "Gaudium," I growled, which was correct, but I couldn't help muttering loud enough for the whole lower floor to hear, "I'm going to gouge out your eyes!"  This awful sentence was heard by Mommy in the next room, whose exclamation of surprised horror I can distinctly remember. Though I must warn you, she wasn't completely shocked; I was that kind of child.

   All I remember, from this occasion was that I got a scolding which I well deserved, and whenever Arianne and I reminisce about our Latin drilling days, Arianne will always bring up this instance; and we laugh.

  Gaudium - Joy or Gladness. I find it interesting that I tried to twist the word into something horrid and it swung around on me and ended up being a source of mirth between my sister and me in later years. As a wise woman as said multiple times, "God has an excellent sense of humor."

  Anyhow, my dear readers, now that I have come to love Latin, and learning languages in general, the word Gaudium recently came to haunt me in a completely different way. This time in it's imperative form, Gaudete, which literally means, Rejoice! 
  It was in the sixteenth century that this song, first appeared in the original copy of the "Piae Cantiones," a collection of Finnish/Swedish sacred songs which was published in 1582. The song was not published with a tune, but the melody it is traditionally sung to comes from liturgical texts which are far older than that.

 As I was listening to this lovely old Latin chant, I was realizing again the benefits of knowing Latin. Time and time again, my knowledge of the language has come to my aid, but today as I heard the song, I could translate the entire chourus right there in my head, and pick out a lot of familiar words from the verses.
  "Rejoice in the Lord!"  The text is taken straight from Philippians 4. "Rejoice in the Lord Always; again I will say, 'Rejoice!'"

  I really like this song, therefore I thought I'd post a couple different versions of it below. Let me know if you find it really catchy; I definitely did. The music certainly fits the words!
                  
                     
                                        

I really like the way this one was arranged, but the singers below have far better enunciation, and a crisper sound.

               

Below are the words and the translation for all non-Latin speakers. However, I would encourage you to pick it up, if you haven't yet. Just don't threaten to torture your sister!

Gaudete, gaudete! Christus est natus Ex Maria virgine, gaudete!

Rejoice, rejoice! Christ is born (Out) Of the Virgin Mary – rejoice!

Tempus adest gratiæ Hoc quod optabamus, Carmina lætitiæ Devote reddamus.

The time of grace has come— what we have wished for, songs of joy Let us give back faithfully.

Deus homo factus est Natura mirante, Mundus renovatus est A Christo regnante.

God has become man, (With) nature marvelling, The world has been renewed By Christ (who is) reigning.

Ezechielis porta Clausa pertransitur, Unde lux est orta Salus invenitur.

The closed gate of Ezekiel Is passed through, Whence the light is raised, Salvation is found.

Ergo nostra concio Psallat iam in lustro; Benedicat Domino: Salus Regi nostro.

Therefore let our preaching Now sing in brightness Let it give praise to the Lord: Greeting to our King.

Rejoice! Christ is born! He is the perfect Lamb of God, sent to take away the sins of the world; and even now, He pleads for us before the throne of His Father. Is that not a thought worthy of rejoicing?

    Do you remember the days of your childhood? Do you remember when you looked forward to Christmas with unbounded eagerness? Your presents were made or bought with enthusiasm not to be outmatched and each one was lovingly swaddled in wrapping paper, done up in your own unique style half of it was paper, the other half was tape. Then came Christmas eve, the most wonderful day of the year, when, amidst the soft glow of many lights, you crept down right before bed, and lovingly arranged your little packages around the tree.
   
    Then there's that other facet of Christmas that comes to your mind as well. You remember all the beautifully illustrated picture books retelling the Christmas tree, and how fresh and wonderful the story was to you each Christmas. You eagerly await the time when your mother puts the special Christmas story books, the ones that only come out at Christmas, in a basket under the tree, and you spend hours poring over the exquisite oil paintings, and marveling afresh over the story you've heard a thousand times before.

    Yes, you and I remember all these beautiful memories, that is, when we have a moment between the hustle and bustle of today's affluent expectations. Sometimes, I think, we need to take a little more time, each year, to step back from life, and remember. Remember our past loves and passions. Remember how we viewed old things afresh. And, most importantly, we need to remember again what Christmas represents. Remember man's great sin and remember our Great Savior.

     Gifts are wonderful things. So is the tree and the decorations, but even more wonderful was God fashioning for Himself a flawed, limited robe of clay, and laying aside His infinity to become finite. Even more beautiful, was God, deigning to dwell in a humble babe whose first bed was a fodder bin. You've heard it all a thousand times, I know. But remember it again. What would it mean for you to agree to take on the body of an earthworm and squirm around in the dirt? Think on it, let the greatness of the sacrifice God made for you astound you afresh on this festive Christmastide.

    To further this end, allow me to present to you a lovely old Christmas song which I only learned about quite recently.

  "Remember O Thou Man"

This is the best version I could find, though the words are a little different from the original. Below are the original words: 

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