Category Holidays

My Favorite Christmas Song

Todd R 6 Comments

People have strong opinions about Christmas music, like when is the right time to begin listening to it.  Personally, I like to have a long Christmas season but also don’t want to distract from other good holidays like Thanksgiving, so for me the right time is once Thanksgiving is done.  I have a Christmas playlist on my phone of my favorites and its playing regularly when I drive around or while I’m wrapping presents or putting up the tree.

People also care a lot about which songs to listen to, sometimes in strange ways.  A tradition we have every year (mainly because of my kids) is called “Whamaggedon.”  What’s that?  It’s a contest to see how long you can go without hearing “Last Christmas” by Wham.  Apparently, lots and lots of people play this and the winner(s) is the one who gets to Christmas without hearing it.  Not that it’s a bad song, but it’s just a fun thing to do in the holiday season.

There are a lot of things to like about Christmas music, even if it’s enjoying goofy songs like Frosty the Snowman or watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV.  But when it comes to genuine Christmas carols, we all have our favorites.  Mine is a beautiful, simple song with a great theme of humility, a trait we can all appreciate during Christmas.

This carol imagines that, in addition to the 3 Magi, the baby Jesus also had other visitors who came to worship Him, including a “Little Drummer Boy.”  You can read the lyrics here, or watch the video below, a version performed by for KING and COUNTRY.  Generally, the simpler the version of the song, the better in my opinion.

Why do I like this carol so much?

Most of us aren’t like the Magi who travelled far and gave expensive gifts to the baby Christ.  We don’t have much gold, and we probably don’t keep frankincense and myrrh laying around.  If the Magi were recognized for bringing these lavish gifts in eternal Scripture, how can we measure up?  Is their example too hard for us to follow?  How can we adequately worship Jesus?  Little Drummer Boy answers these questions.

We can all identify with the boy because what he has to offer Jesus is something we can all offer: whatever we happen to have.  The Little Drummer Boy gives us assurance that if we offer what we have, whatever we have, to our King Jesus, He will accept it.  In the song, when Jesus smiles at the boy at the end of the song, we are all reminded that “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

The Little Drummer Boy shows us that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:5).  Humility doesn’t mean thinking of oneself as worthless or inferior to others.  Humility means thinking of yourself in the proper place, a miserable sinner who is nonetheless loved by God and who God will use for His glory and will bring to perfection in eternity.  As the great Lion Aslan said in C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian, “You come of the Lord Adam and the Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth.”  Humility involves having the proper balance between shame and grace, with grace ultimately victorious.

This is why I wrote earlier that the simpler the version of this song, the better.  Just about anyone can tap out “rum pa pum pum” on a drum and identify with the little boy, but not everyone can perform the more elaborate cover versions of the song and to me that dilutes the beautifully simple lesson of the song: whatever you have, however little of it you have, offer it to Jesus and He will smile at you.  He will accept your worship, no matter how imperfect.  To Jesus, it’s not what you have that matters, but what you do with it.  You can be a beggar or an emperor, but with the right attitude toward Jesus our King, anyone can experience salvation and eternal life, gifts infinitely greater than anything on this earth and therefore infinitely greater than anything we have to offer Him.

So, whatever your particular “drum” is, pay Jesus a visit and play it for Him this Christmas and in the coming year!  Offer to Him whatever you have and see what happens!

Presents of Presence: A Holiday Quint of Quotes

Todd R 3 Comments

Dear fellow travelers,

With mere days remaining until Christmas, here is a Quint of Quotes, five sayings for the holidays!

Photo by Stéphane Juban on Unsplash

“Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity” – Simone Weil

“The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world” – Plato

“When given the choice between being right or being kind choose kind.” – from the book Wonder, by R.J. Palacio

“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” – Paul, in Ephesians 4:32

“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” – guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, in It’s a Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas to all my readers – first timers, occasional passersby, and a handful of regulars!

Participating in the Psalms: Thanksgiving Edition

Todd R Leave a comment

Often the writers of the Psalms aren’t just trying to teach us about God, but they are trying to share their experience of Him.  As in Psalm 96 and 100, included in earlier posts, Psalm 136 opens with encouragement, or even instructions, to join the Psalmist in thanksgiving:

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
     for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
     for his steadfast love endures forever” – Psalm 136:1-3

All 26 verses of this Psalm end with the phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever,” following something about God that is worthy of praise and thanksgiving.  This constant repetition is a reminder that it is “his steadfast love” for His people that drives His acts of creation, His works in history, and ultimately His death on the cross.  His works are all done by a person, for a people.  What God really desires is relationship with us. We are not alone in the universe.

Giving thanks only makes sense if someone exists to thank, who is good, and has the power to provide what we are thankful for.  If creation is a mere accident, if wicked acts are never corrected and righteous acts are never rewarded, and if mankind can only hope in themselves, there is no reason to give thanks to someone, or something, else.  Many religions seem to acknowledge this, giving personality and reverence to created things – trees, the sun, the harvest, and so on – but in Christ we can know the Person who is behind it all, and who actually is a Person that loves us.

Therefore, today give thanks to the Lord who is good, and is above any god or lord of this world.  As we celebrate Thanksgiving today in the United States, be thankful above all else that Someone exists to thank, that He is good, and that He has the power, and love, needed to care for His people.  Now and forever.

Amen.

Earlier posts on Participating in the Psalms are here, here, and here.

The Fatherless Aren’t

Todd R Leave a comment

There are a lot of different perspectives on truth.  Truth of the way the world is.  Truth of the way it should be.  Gospel Truth.  But this Father’s Day, I’ll focus on one particular truth:

“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” – James 1:27

This verse tells us that God the Father has a special place for those who don’t have an earthly father.  He will be Father to them.  It tells us to be Jesus to the widows and orphans, showing them the Way to, and the love of, their Father.  There is a reason the Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father” – because ultimately all depends on Him.

Photo by Liane Metzler on Unsplash

Many in the world reject God as Father because of the failure of fathers in the world.  The Old Testament of the Bible is not full of great examples of parents, but rather shows people with all their flaws and warts, who by God’s grace became part of God’s plan to use sinners to reach sinners.  To become the Father of His eternal people, despite the failure of His people to be good fathers.  There are no Godly offspring without the sacrifice of Jesus.  There is no human Jesus without a genealogy of sinners.  There are none to inhabit heaven without the sacrifice of a human Jesus, God’s only Son, given for you.

This Father’s Day, take every opportunity to be grateful for fathers, for parents, for those who take on parenthood in other ways, but also think about those who have no earthly provision.  Because those who see Jesus see the Father, help people see Jesus.  God’s purpose for Godly offspring will be fulfilled and praise Him that you have the awesome responsibility and opportunity to be a part of that work.

Fathers matter.  You matter.  To God and to others.  Whoever you are.

Memorial Day Meditation

Todd R 5 Comments

In an essay in The Weight of Glory[1], C.S. Lewis wrote: “the sun looks down on nothing half so good as a household laughing together over a meal, or two friends talking over a pint of beer, or a man alone reading a book that interests him.”  As we celebrate Memorial Day here in the United States, I pray you can enjoy what matters most to you and give thanks for others who sacrificed to made it possible.

In the same essay, Lewis says “all economies, politics, laws, armies, and institutions, save insofar as they prolong and multiply such scenes, are a mere ploughing the sand and sowing the ocean.”  These cannot deliver our salvation, yet they are absolutely necessary in this life.  These institutions have “no higher end than to facilitate and safeguard the family, and friendship, and solitude.”  Therefore, give thanks whenever peace and fellowship are possible, and pray for those living in places where they are not.

The essay also includes this quote: “do not let us mistake necessary evils for good.”  What did Lewis mean?  That when things that exist to provide “family, and friendship, and solitude” become an end in themselves “what was undertaken for the sake of health has become itself a new and deadly disease.”  While these things are absolutely needed, we should think of them “only in order to be able to think of something else.”  On the other hand, “a sick society must think much about politics.”  Therefore, give thanks for those who faithfully serve, and for preservation of the freedoms you enjoy.

Most importantly on Memorial Day, give thanks for those who gave up their lives so those they left behind could enjoy “family, and friendship, and solitude.”  Without their sacrifice, we could not celebrate Memorial Day, or any other day.  “Great sacrifices of this private happiness by those who have it may be necessary in order that it may be more widely distributed.”

Jesus said: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13) As He gave His life for you, pray also for the ability, willingness, and freedom to sacrifice your own time and talents for others.

[1] Lewis, C.S.  The Weight of Glory (1941).  P. 161-162.