Bill and Gloria Gaither
said it best, Jesus Christ “started the whole world singing”. If I’m not
mistaken, Christmas is the most musical holiday of all. Christmas music
literally encircles the globe. Some people complain about the commercialization
of Christmas, but I like the Christianization of the marketplace. At no other
time can you walk through the mall and hear beautiful gospel music pouring out
of the speakers. Some of the music is about Santa Claus and reindeer, but I
enjoy that too. The imagination is a marvelous gift of God and Gene Autry’s “Rudolph”
song is lots of fun to sing and I think really entertaining. Even if the words
are a secular fantasy, all real music is a gift of God because music itself is
a gift God built into the DNA of the universe.
I love the special Christmas
services, especially when I get to sing. This year our First Church of God choir
(St Joseph, MI) did the cantata “Child of Wonder” and this marvelous choir
really nailed it. I doubt if many have done it better. Just a few minutes ago I
heard “There’s Something Going on Down in Bethlehem”, one of the fun (but
incredibly inspirational) songs in this cantata being sung on the Purdue University
Christmas Show. They did a marvelous job and it’s always a thrill to hear Christ
proclaimed over national television, but the truth is, as good as they were,
they didn’t do it as well as our choir! I shouldn’t brag, especially since I’m
in the tenor section, but we probably did one of the best it’s ever been done.
Pastor Chad Harlan knows
how to get the most out of a choir—the perfect combination of pastor,
disciplined taskmaster and gifted teacher. Last Sunday evening we sang the
cantata at First Church and this morning we sang “Hark the Herald” in the 9:30
am service in St Joseph and then scurried over to Benton Heights to sing the
full cantata at the First Church at Benton Heights 11 am service.
For more than a year I
was one of the associate pastors at the Benton Heights Church and I remember
some young black men who checked us out and weren’t too sure they even liked
us. But Campus Pastor Mary Shawl-Ranke and now Pastor Colt Slack have, together
with a host of lay volunteers, shared Christ’s love with those young men and
what a blessing it was to look out into the congregation from the choir and see
so many of those young men sitting in the pews, participating in the service,
obviously very much a part of the congregation. The congregation is white, black
and Hispanic, young, old and in-between, and they all made our choir feel so
welcome. We all had a marvelous time and God was glorified in the worship, the
music, and the marvelous voices. Pastor Colt even did a little preaching to
close it out. God’s glory shows best in the lives of people whose hearts have been
transformed by the gospel of Christ.
But I digress. This post
is about the music of Christmas. It’s just the best. Whether “Silver Bells” or “Silent
Night”, it is Jesus who gave us something to sing about and when we sing songs
of joy and happiness, we bring glory to God!
Carol and I were blessed to grow
up in musical families. We shared that heritage with our children and
now the grandchildren too are singers and musicians. Our extended families have
always been and still are gifted singers and musicians. We give all praise to
God who gave us this gift of music.
Thank you God for this
gift—the ability to sing (or listen), and play instruments. I especially, thank you
for the gift of your Son, who created us to sing and gave us all a reason to do
so!
I’m Rick Blumenberg and
that’s “My View from
Tanner Creek”.
