I love the wonder and wisdom found in many of the new Christmas songs. The lyrics no longer stay on the surface; they take us to places of mystery and awe. The Christmas carols I grew up with told the story. They reported the   silence of the night, the joy surrounding the birth, the manger where he lay, the glorious song of angels, and the dark streets of Bethlehem. There is an everlasting attraction to the classics, but our newer Christmas songs take us beyond the story. 

 

Several recent songs have explored the heart of Mary. Mark Lowry was among the first with lyrics written in 1985. "Mary, did you know that this child that you deliver will soon deliver you? And, did you know that your baby has walked where angels trod, when you kissed your little baby you've kissed the face of God." 

 

Then just last year Faith Hill's version of A Baby Changes Everything provided a look into what could be Mary's Diary. "Teenage girl, much too young. Unprepared for what's to come. A baby changes everything. Not a ring on her hand; all her dreams and all her plans. A baby changes everything!"  Then when the angels sing, she sings,  "I was lost but now I'm found. A baby changes everything." 

 

Without fanfare, in 2008 Joy Williams also introduced us to Mary's heart. She sang of the wonder of the holy birth, Here with Us. "It's still a mystery to me That the hands of God could be so small, how tiny fingers reaching in the night were the very hands that measured the sky. And, how His infant eyes have seen the dawn of time, how His ears have heard an angel's symphony, but still Mary had to rock her Savior to sleep. Hallelujah, Son of God, Servant King! Here with us!"

 

In 2006 4Him sang of Joseph's side of this unforeseen circumstance. "Why me, I’m just a simple man of trade? Why Him with all the rulers in the world? Why here inside this stable filled with hay? Why her, she’s just an ordinary girl?… Now I’m not one to second guess what angels have to say, but this is such a strange way to save the world."  

 

This year I discovered a terrific song by Downhere, How Many Kings. Essentially this is a song of questions, questions that are asked to lead us to an ultimate truth. "How many kings stepped down from their thrones? How many lords have abandoned their homes? How many greats have become the least for me? How many Gods have poured out their hearts To romance a world that has torn all apart? How many fathers gave up their sons for me? Only one did that for me"

 

There were just too many people; the little village was overwhelmed. Mary and Joseph had to settle for a make do, cave-stable on the edge of town. She was weary, separated from family, and feeling the pains of labor. Everything was strange and new to her. Was this the way she was supposed to feel? Was it supposed to hurt this much? Was it supposed to take this long?

 

Alone, but not forgotten, she gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, a helpless incarnation of the Creator himself. So it began.

 

Jesus spent his first night wrapped in human skin sleeping in a hay-filled feed trough. While the God of creation was getting used to human limitations like breathing and crying, Bethlehem slept. The God who created time placed his future in the unproven and inexperienced hands of a teenage girl. The plan was risky.

 

The Savior of the world, the Messiah, the Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, was sleeping in an ordinary stable on the edge of tiny little village, in a troublesome providence of the Roman Empire. Nobody knew that this birth would change everything, everywhere.

 

Finally heaven could not keep quiet. The nameless shepherds heard the news. They were stunned by the dazzling brightness filling the sky around them. The news was incredible, “the Messiah has come.” They had to go; they had to see for themselves.

 

On that night centuries ago, God opened the windows of heaven, and for a brief moment ordinary shepherds could glimpse the glory of heaven itself. Have you ever wondered why it was that shepherds were given this gift? Why not the religious leaders, the Sanhedrin, the politicians, the prominent people, the powerful people? 

 

Perhaps they were too busy looking down on others, to look up to God? Or, maybe they couldn’t see God’s world, because their eyes were too focused on their world.

 

Jesus traded the joys of heaven and the power of the Creator to become the created. He gave up everything for the willing arms of a novice mother, from an ordinary town, in a forgotten corner of the world. Yes, the plan was filled with risk.

 

Did it work?

 

 

Read the original. Luke 2:1-20 and Matt 2:1:12

 

Then read it to someone else, anyone, but especially to someone you love. Do it, for Jesus, not for you or anyone else. Do it?

 

So, what's your song this year?