Mary, Did You Know?

Despite all the crazy, hectic days this time of year, I really do love Christmas! As I am scurrying around trying to decorate or wrap gifts or make some yummies for our family Christmas caroling, I have my cd player cranked up and am singing my little heart out.

One of my favorite songs is "Mary, Did You Know". Several years ago I found a piano arrangement I absolutely love - and then tweaked it a bit to be mine :-) One of the first times I played it, my son, Andrew, made a power point to go with it. He found some incredible pictures that brought out the tenderness of a new mother with her baby.

Now, I will tread carefully here - for I know Jesus was God; Emmanuel ~ God with us, here in the flesh. But he was also human. (That fact has always blown my mind!) So when Mary concluded her pregnancy and went through labor - it was a baby she held in her arms. A baby.

Obviously Mark Lowry, who penned the words to the song, has read his Bible and knows the accounts of Jesus as He lived His life. Jesus did walk on water and heal the blind and deaf. He was sent to deliver us and had walked where angels walked.

But I love how Mark also captured what Mary must have been thinking as she held that tiny baby in her arms - as she kissed His little face, she was touching God. Although He was sleeping - Jesus was the great I Am. Wow - amazing!

Christmas is such a wonderful time for many reasons. But the most important one of all is that we celebrate the birth of the One who
~ came to give us freedom from our bondage of sin
~ walks with us every step of our life
~ cares about everything that touches us
~ is preparing a place for us to be with Him ~ forever
~ loves us and has called us by name
~ is, indeed, the great I AM!

The First Noel

Music is such an incredible way to praise our awesome God! I especially love it when our choir or church congregation just lets it rip - that glorious sound of believers raising their voices to glorify God. There is just something about that single-minded purpose and intensity of praise to God for all He has done for us. Can you imagine what that will sound like when we will be singing around His throne? Wow!

Our choir is doing a cantata called "The First Noel" - this coming Sunday night. (Just a quick advertisement in case you are in the Lafayette area and would like to come... it's a 6pm at Kossuth Street Baptist Church.) There are a lot of wonderful songs, including - yup, you guessed it! - "The First Noel".

As I have been singing the songs, I have been trying to grasp what the composer was trying to convey. I think the intensity and purposed praise is what he was thinking of when he penned the last verse:

Then let us all with one accord sing praises to our heavenly Lord,
That hath made Heaven and earth of naught,
and with His blood mankind hath bought.
Noel - Born is the King of Israel.

Creation and Redemption - two themes we will bring in praise to God through all eternity!

Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus

Yesterday I was privileged to accompany the Rossville High School select choirs as they did a mini-concert at the Rossville Brethren Church. The Christmas music was incredible and they did a wonderful job. I was especially proud of my daughter, Kimberly, who had a solo and did it well!

When the choirs were finished, the pastor gave his sermon from Galatians 4 - why Jesus came at Christmas. "But when the time had fully come, God sent His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Galatians 4: 4-5

What a wonderful reminder - that from before creation, God had everything planned and He set everything in motion to happen at just the right time. That in the fullness of time He would send His Son to REDEEM us - to buy us back and then to give us the privilege and rights of being His child. Wow!

And not only did God have redemption planned, but every little detail of my life. He uses everything that happens, no matter what I may think of it, to be for good in my life - all to make me more like His Son. I think that gets another Wow!

All of this reminds me of the song "Come, Thou Long-expected Jesus", which we sang yesterday. I love it when phrases from songs stick in my head and make me think of God. There are two in this song that make me pause. The first one in this song says very plainly what Jesus' mission was:

Come, Thou long-expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free

The other phrase is this:

Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art

Yes, in the fullness of time, God sent His Son to set us free - and because of that, He is the hope of the world!