But that's a story for another day.
We had a busy weekend. Our Life Group Christmas party. Lunch with friends. A visit with a favorite aunt and uncle. A trip to the cemetery to put flowers on my parents' graves. 'Tis the season for busy.
In the middle of all that, my car had a dead battery. We discovered that on Friday, put the battery charger on overnight, and Saturday morning still had a dead battery. So, on our way to Spartanburg for the party, we stopped by the Volvo dealership to drop off the dead battery and pick up a new one. Al has driven the car down to Asheville this morning to have the electrical system checked, since this is not the first time we've had to deal with this issue. And, as if that weren't enough, on our way home last night, when we were still about thirty minutes from home, the low tire pressure light came on in Al's car. We were praying all the way home that the tire wouldn't go flat, since it was already dark. And dark out here where we live is darker than dark in the city, with street lights and all the other city light. Dark out here is really dark. Not a good place to have to change a tire. Thankfully we made it home with all tires still inflated!
'Tis the season for stress.
Yesterday we had a wonderful service of worship. Our pastor has been preaching across South Korea for the last couple of weeks, and so yesterday we were blessed to hear a powerful message from our Minister to Students, Seth Buckley. You can hear his message at www.fbs.org/media, and I'm sure you'll be blessed as well! In addition to that powerful message, we were blessed by wonderful music. From the choir. From soloists. And in congregational singing. 'Tis the season for Christmas carols.
We sang one of my favorite carols yesterday. I have mentioned before that it is impossible for me to choose one favorite carol. But one of my most favorites is Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. I have loved that carol for as long as I can remember. Even as a small child this was a favorite carol. Although back then I didn't get all the words exactly right. I have been told that, as a very young child, I sang with great enthusiasm, "with the jelly host proclaim........"
Now, in my defense, as a 3-year old I probably didn't understand much about the angelic host. And small children don't always correctly pronounce all the "big" words. As an example, a few years ago one of my grandsons shared a Bible verse (Psalm 19:1 KJV) this way: "The heavens declare the glory of God and the furniture sheweth His handiwork."
Somewhere along the way, I got the words right! And in all the years since, when asked to name my favorite carol, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing has always made the list. The tune comes to us from Mendelssohn, so of course I would love that, since Mendelssohn is one of my favorite composers. But it is Charles Wesley's text that really captures my attention.
Wesley begins by describing the song of the angels to the shepherds in that field outside Bethlehem, and he invites us to join in that song. Then he goes on to touch all the bases of the Christmas story: the virgin birth, Christ's deity, the new birth, the transforming power of Christ to save. This carol focuses our attention not only on what happened in Bethlehem on that night so long ago, but on why it happened.
And that's an important thing for us to remember this Christmas season. Remember why. Remember the reason for the season. 'Tis the season to remember.
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King.
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled.
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies,
With angelic host proclaim
Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Hark! the herald angels sing
Glory to the newborn King.
"God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation."
(2 Corinthians 5:19 NASB)
Thank ewe for another great post, Susan. As we hear the CHRISTmas music and focus on the messages, I wondered if I was misusing the term "carol." According to Wikipedia: "A carol is in modern parlance a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character. Today the carol is represented almost exclusively by the Christmas carol, the Advent carol, and to a much lesser extent by the Easter carol; however, despite their present association with religion, this has not always been the case."
ReplyDeleteI like how some make the distinction between carols as the religious CHRISTmas music versus "songs" as the whimsical, romantic, commercial tunes we sing at CHRISTmas time. Only semantics, but maybe a good distinction?
Thanks for sharing, Marie! I've always thought of the "carols" as those that were about the birth of Christ. When I was much younger, I thought of "carols" as the songs that we sang at church, the ones that were in the hymnal or sung by the church choir. And the result was that I thought of all the other ones, "Jingle Bells" and all the rest, as Christmas "songs". I seem to have carried that thinking with me throughout life. I think it's a good distinction.
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