The Tenth Carol of Christmas

           One of the largest elements of Christmas is gift giving. Our celebration revolves about it. I start thinking about Christmas presents in August and by late October I've usually acquired most of them. The excitement of receiving secret packages that you hustle up to your special hidehout with many sneaky looks and misleading hints if necesary. If a sibling has the audacity to ask you what you got him for Christmas, you open your eyes wide and allow a slow smile to creep across your features, as you respond coyly,"Wouldn't you like to know?"

          We love giving gifts, we're so excited to receive them, and we love surprising and being surprised(at least I do). What I like even better, though, is a gift that's hidden somewhere and I'm given a riddle as a clue to its whereabouts. Riddles have this way of not making sense in the least, until the solution, by some means or another.

             Suddenly, all the strange little rhymes and disjointed sentences make sense, and you can see the progression, how it all fit together. And, of course, it makes the gift that much more special.

           You can see where I'm going, right? God not only gave us a marvelous gift at Christmas all those years ago, but he left us marvelous clues along the way.

            "Behold, a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel."
           "But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, the least among the clans of Judah. Out of you will come a ruler which will shepherd my people Israel."
            "A voice was heard in Ramah; weeping and lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children and she will not be comforted because they are no more."
             "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son."
            "A star will come out of Jacob, a scepter will rise from Israel."

   And those are just the ones I can think of on the spot. There are dozens more that must have been real head-scratchers in their day, and yet, now make perfect sense in Christ's incarnation.

      But, of course, the only purpose of riddles is not just to present a curiosity. They're also there to provide clues to something or someone coming down the pike. In Christ's case, it was so that we could recognize the Christ when we saw Him. Not just anybody can waltz in and claim to be the Messiah. A virgin birth and mass slaughter of infants are pretty hard to contrive.

        That's one of my favorite things about the Christmas story. Not only did God send mankind the greatest gift ever given, but throughout the time leading up to it, He left us hints clues and riddles woven beautifully through all of Scripture to guide us to the truth.

        A beautiful gift, wrapped in a manger, hidden in Bethlehem, with lowly shepherds getting the first surprise viewing. What an honor to be the first to receive such a magnificent surprise gift. The first surprise Christmas gift in all of history.


            In light of this, I'll share a beautiful arrangement of an age old Christmas carol which most of you will probably recognize, though not with this tune.

              The last verse is my favorite and perfectly sums things up: