On Christmas Music
I think it may be that I am just getting older, but for some reason Christmas music just seems so cheesy and superficial to me this year. I guess I just don't understand the majority of Christmas music. That has to be the reason. I mean there must be a reason that it's important for us to sing a song about someone roasting chestnuts over an open fire. Maybe they just never told me why. But I personally have never dreampt of a white Christmas, much less felt the need to tell the world about such a dream through song. I just don't get it.
Another thing I don't get is how we have tried to create a romantic scene of Jesus' birth. We sing songs about how the cattle are loing (what does that mean)and how Jesus just laid down his sweet little head. Maybe the writers of these songs have never been around cattle. Maybe they've never been around when a child was birthed. I have no way of knowing, but they must be clueless as to what any of those experiences are really like to write such sweet, soothing, soft, gentle music.
Just imagine with me for a second. Your Joseph (I'll pick this role because I identify with him more being a man) and your wife is in her third trimester about to give birth. You've just had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem on foot. Now you've just gotten to bethlehem and what do you find out, there is no room in any of the inns for you and your wife to stay, but your desperate for a room. So you finally find a little cave where an inn-keeper has allowed you to spend the night with live-stock. So now your in a close-quarters environment with animals and all of their various smells (not many of which are very pleasant) and your wife starts to go into labor. So now here you are, tired from the long trip, sitting in a room with livestock, your wife's going through labor, and the last thing your going to think of is anything romantic.
I just don't see the romantic side of this. I do however recognize the power in the reality of the story. Jesus was human. He was birthed same as I was. He had to be bathed same as I was. He cried same as I did. He grew up same as I did. He experienced the same feelings I feel. He had the same emotions I had. He was just like me except for one aspect... He was also God.
That's the power of this story to me. The fact that He was almost no different from me. Why do we raise him up to such a level that we ignore the fact that he was just like we are? Why do we sing songs of how romantic his birth was when that wasn't how it happened at all? Why do we try so hard to create reasons why Jesus wasn't like us at all? That's where I see beauty in this story. I see the beauty in that I can relate to Jesus on a personal-everyday-real-life-He-knows-what-I've-experienced level. That's amazing. That's awesome. That's mind blowing.
So I'm back to where I started. Is it just me or does our Christmas music create this cheesy, weak, pale expression of what we have actually come to celebrate?
Leave your thoughts.
Another thing I don't get is how we have tried to create a romantic scene of Jesus' birth. We sing songs about how the cattle are loing (what does that mean)and how Jesus just laid down his sweet little head. Maybe the writers of these songs have never been around cattle. Maybe they've never been around when a child was birthed. I have no way of knowing, but they must be clueless as to what any of those experiences are really like to write such sweet, soothing, soft, gentle music.
Just imagine with me for a second. Your Joseph (I'll pick this role because I identify with him more being a man) and your wife is in her third trimester about to give birth. You've just had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem on foot. Now you've just gotten to bethlehem and what do you find out, there is no room in any of the inns for you and your wife to stay, but your desperate for a room. So you finally find a little cave where an inn-keeper has allowed you to spend the night with live-stock. So now your in a close-quarters environment with animals and all of their various smells (not many of which are very pleasant) and your wife starts to go into labor. So now here you are, tired from the long trip, sitting in a room with livestock, your wife's going through labor, and the last thing your going to think of is anything romantic.
I just don't see the romantic side of this. I do however recognize the power in the reality of the story. Jesus was human. He was birthed same as I was. He had to be bathed same as I was. He cried same as I did. He grew up same as I did. He experienced the same feelings I feel. He had the same emotions I had. He was just like me except for one aspect... He was also God.
That's the power of this story to me. The fact that He was almost no different from me. Why do we raise him up to such a level that we ignore the fact that he was just like we are? Why do we sing songs of how romantic his birth was when that wasn't how it happened at all? Why do we try so hard to create reasons why Jesus wasn't like us at all? That's where I see beauty in this story. I see the beauty in that I can relate to Jesus on a personal-everyday-real-life-He-knows-what-I've-experienced level. That's amazing. That's awesome. That's mind blowing.
So I'm back to where I started. Is it just me or does our Christmas music create this cheesy, weak, pale expression of what we have actually come to celebrate?
Leave your thoughts.
posted by theboythatis at 8:54 PM
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