One of the great joys of Christmas is the music associated with the holiday. I enjoy almost anything that was written by the time I was growing up. That means I can embrace “Rockin’ around the Christmas tree...” as well as “Angels from the realms of glory....” One end of the spectrum is simply fun and the other brings eternal insights.
I was in the midst of Joy to the World. I know the words well enough to know what comes next, only it didn’t. They left out a verse. I was thinking it was the second verse but it was really the third. It is probably the verse that our world needs to hear the most.
No more let sin and sorrow grow,It is funny how people leave out the vital guts of the message. Christmas as portrayed on the Hallmark Channel and other popular mediums is some strange hybrid of corporate America, warm fuzzies and pagan ritual. I have noticed that the Christian message is being filtered out of the holiday more every year. I used to be able to find several stations that would begin playing the carols associated with the incarnation for days ahead of Christmas. Lately when I have found any station trying to do that they were loaded with the nonsense romantic frustrations expressed by the Christmas albums that every recording artist feels is an obligation to be part of their repertoire.
Nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.
Christmas carols are loaded with theology and the message of salvation. Notice the reference to sin and redemption in the second verse. It was left out. Don’t leave it out of your Christmas.
Merry Christmas, the day we celebrate the incarnation.
homo unius libri
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.