There is something about music that stirs our souls. Certain melodies stick in our minds and the tune runs through our heads repeatedly. Hearing a rousing, joyous, soulful or melancholy song can completely and immediately shift our mood. Whether we are musically inclined, or can carry a tune or not, there is something about music that strikes a chord within us.
Perhaps this is why so many statements and feelings have been expressed so much more eloquently with music. Down through the ages and even pre-history, the story of a clan or family, or an epic tale, or religious traditions were set to music and more easily remembered and repeated for the next generation.
A poem might be easy to memorize, but if it is set to music it is even easier to remember the words and to have those words come drifting back to us when that tune is played or sung. Music, and a familiar tune, is often still recognizable when we have lost the memories of many other things. Songs of our past can still stir us when we are old and forgetful.
Whether we recognize it or not, music sets our mood and can change our outlook, soften our hearts or firm up our resolve. Even if we are not religious, some of the hymns we heard in our childhood can stir forgotten echoes of a different time or make us pause in remembrance of something sacred.
As we approach the Christmas season, this becomes evident as the familiar hymns and Christmas carols are heard once again. Perhaps we have been too busy to even think about Christmas and all it means to us – as a nation, as a family, as an individual – in remembering the Gift that God sent to His people to tell them, through the birth of His Son, that He loves us, forgives us, yearns for our recognition of Him as our Father. Even if we are wayward children, the songs of Christmas remind us that we are loved and loved in an unconditional way that only a parent can love a difficult child.
In our busy lives as ranchers, some of us may not take time to go to church, but a song in the air, and in our hearts, can be a sermon in itself as we remember the Christ child and the good news the angels sang about – Glad tidings of great joy, to all people, for unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord.
Most people have a favorite hymn – whether it is sung often during attendance at church services or singing Christmas carols or simply remembered from many years past:
Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us; let us find our rest in Thee.
Hark the herald angels sing (heralding the exciting news of the Savior’s birth), Glory to the newborn King. While shepherds watched their flocks by night … The angels appeared to them singing as a heavenly choir. Joy to the world! The Lord is come! It came upon a midnight clear – that glorious song of old – from angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold.
There’s a song in the air, there’s a star in the sky; there’s a mother’s deep prayer and a baby’s low cry … Silent night, holy night … Oh little town of Bethlehem … Gentle Mary laid her child lowly in a manger. Harken all! What holy singing now is sounding from the sky! Tis a hymn with grandeur ringing, sung by voices clear and high!
What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?
The hymns celebrating the birth of the Christ child are many, and some of them are very special to us as we recall singing them again and again over the years.
Christmas is a time for many tunes, including secular songs and jingles about Santa Claus and other trappings of our modern “holiday” that is so often no longer a holy day in modern times. But when the familiar carols and hymns of Christmas fill the air, we do remember the meaning of Christmas and pause in our preoccupation with “busy” things; we are drawn to our true roots and become open once more to remembering the Gift we’ve been given.
As we go about our busy lives, the songs of Christmas can stir us again and fill our hearts with the true meaning of this season of remembrance, and spark more love for our family and neighbors and a spirit of giving. We may silently run a Christmas carol through our mind as we go about our morning chores when all is quiet in a frosty, early dawn when the stars are still showing in the lightening sky. Or a familiar hymn sets our heart leaping with joy and gratitude for life and love as we feed the cows – and we are thankful for the opportunity to live this kind of life – able to raise our families on a farm or ranch, close to the earth and the wonders of God’s creation.
Thank God for Christmas and the songs of Christmas that turn our hearts and minds again to the birth of Christ and the love of the Father who sent Him.
