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Don’t Turn Off the Christmas Music
Christmas Day has come and gone. We’ve enjoyed the celebrations, opened the presents, and eaten the food. Perhaps it’s time to pack up your decorations (though mine will remain a while longer). But it’s not time to change your playlist.
I have to confess—I listen to Christmas music all year round. No, not “Jingle Bells” or “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town,” but Christmas hymns rich in theology that tell of the mystery and majesty of God’s Son becoming flesh. Some people are horrified that I listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving, let alone in August or February. But here’s why I do—and why I think you should too.
1. We should meditate on the incarnation all year round.
The Christmas season doesn’t have exclusive rights to Jesus’s incarnation. “Emmanuel” isn’t a Christmas word; it’s a Bible word. We see in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation that God created us to dwell with him. From the garden of Eden to the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire to the tabernacle to the temple, God was always in pursuit of dwelling with his people. And then we read these words: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
When I first met my husband while serving on the mission field, he introduced me to a Christmas song called “Who Would Have Dreamed” by Sovereign Grace Music. The chorus goes like this:
And who would have dreamed or ever foreseen
That we could hold God in our hands?
The Giver of Life is born in the night
Revealing God’s glorious plan
To save the world
In the area of the world where we were sharing the gospel, people didn’t believe God would come in the flesh to dwell among us. They considered it preposterous, even blasphemous. To them, he was unreachable.
That’s because Jesus’s incarnation is indeed astonishing. No one could have come up with it. No one could have dreamed it. God, coming to us? But if we were honest, most of us would admit we often take the mystery and majesty of Christ’s birth for granted. Listening to that song reminds me of the wonder of the incarnation. Christmas hymns can help stir our hearts and warm our affections toward this unbelievable truth year-round.
Yes, it’s worthwhile to have a focused time of meditation on Jesus’s birth during Christmas, but one month isn’t enough. There’s never a time we don’t need to remember the incarnation.
2. Our souls go through wintry seasons all year round.
There’s never a time we don’t need to remember the incarnation.
January and February can be the gloomiest months of the year, at least where I live. And our souls can often feel like January and February when it’s “always winter and never Christmas,” to borrow a phrase from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Once the festivities are over, we can lose the joy we had in the Christmas season. The radio changes, the lights come down, and life goes back to normal.
I won’t tell you how long our Christmas tree stayed up last year, but even once we’ve put away the decorations and lights, we need not put away the good news of the Light of the world coming to penetrate our darkness. It’s a truth our weary and wintry souls need all year round.
If we remove Christ’s birth from the picture, we lose the gospel. Without the incarnation, we don’t have the cross. Without the cross, we don’t have the resurrection and ascension. Without the resurrection and ascension, we don’t have Pentecost. The incarnation happened so that we can now enjoy Emmanuel through the Holy Spirit. And we’re still waiting for the day when we’ll enjoy Emmanuel for all eternity (Rev. 21:3).
In the cold months of January and February, and all other times of the year when our souls feel like it’s “always winter and never Christmas,” the truths of Emmanuel past, present, and future can warm our wintry spirits.
3. These songs help us, and our churches, worship Christ all year round.
I’m grateful that I’m not the only one who sees the value of singing Christmas hymns all year. This summer, our church had a sermon series in Galatians. Before hearing a message on Galatians 4:1–7, we sang “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee,” and we ended our service with “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus.” This was in July, but it was such a joy to sing these beautiful truths:
Born thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now thy gracious kingdom bring.
At an evening service in mid-November, one of our pastors led us in singing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” He told us it was one of his favorite songs (as it is mine). He explained it’s filled with good Christology, from the virgin birth to Christ as our reconciler and everlasting Lord. It helps us worship Christ through its deep and true lyrics.
Even once we’ve put away the decorations and lights, we need not put away the good news of the Light of the world coming to penetrate our darkness.
It’s also a great congregational song because its rhythm and notes make it easy for a wide range of voices to sing. And it brings joy! Everybody knows it, and it helps us worship Christ together. We should sing good theological songs throughout the year, even if they’re in the Christmas section of the hymnal.
As we say goodbye to the Christmas season, may we not say goodbye to Christmas hymns, storing them away until December like we do our decorations. They don’t deserve to collect dust. Let’s have them tucked away in our pockets so we may frequently bring them out and bask in the majesty of the incarnation. It’s a mystery worth beholding all year round.
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