The Meaning Behind the Music

Over the next month, people all over this country will sing many of the same songs over and over.  I LOVE Christmas carols and always have!  I've been singing Christmas carols in church since I was old enough to talk and I have wonderful memories of caroling in the neighborhood outside our church with my youth group as a teenager.  It was always one of my favorite things to do this time of year.  There's just something so special about knowing that you can sing a song and everyone who hears it will be familiar with it.  Christmas carols bring warm fuzzy feelings of friendship and make you think of snow and hot chocolate and twinkling lights.  They just make me smile! :)

Sometimes though, I wonder if there's something lost in the repetition and familiarity of many of these songs.  So this year, because I'm leading many of these familiar songs as part of corporate worship, I want to make sure I am thinking about and understanding what I'm singing.  Many of the Christmas "carols" we sing are hymns with powerful messages of truth and beautiful words of worship.  I don't want to miss the power behind these songs anymore!  I don't want them to just be about warm fuzzy feelings, I want to truly worship our King through these songs that I love so much!

Once a week throughout the month of December, I'm going to do a little bit (remember I have 21 concerts to do too, so I don't have a whole lot of extra time) of research on a commonly sung Christmas carol and share what I've learned here.  I will specifically cover songs that Josh and I will be leading at some or all of our Christmas services!

I hope this will be a blessing to you and allow you to find deep meaning in the carols that you will no doubt find yourself listening to and singing this year.  Please feel free to comment on each of these posts with any additional insights or information that you have about that particular song.

Check back early next week for what I've learned about the Christmas song that most often has me thinking, "What does that even mean?!"

First - "On a cold winter's night that was so deep."
     nope - wasn't winter and wasn't cold!  cool maybe, but not cold

Second - "They looked up and saw a star shining in the East beyond them far"
     "they" is the shepherds and the Bible says nothing about them seeing or following a star in the East

Update:  Follow these links to read my post on "The First Noel", "O Come All Ye Faithful" and "God With Us."