Well, as I write this, American Idol Rewind is playing on WGN, and I’m hearing some frightening sounds coming from the living room. They’re showing the highlights (and lowlights) of season one, which unfortunately was not the season that Keith or William Hung made an appearance in the auditions, but there are some that are just as bad.
And speaking of bad auditions…this afternoon when I was home at Mom and Dad’s, having Christmas with my aunt, Dad unearthed several “takes” of me offering renditions of Away in a Manger. I was probably about three. It was no doubt done around the same time I recited Luke 2 that I told you about last week. Wow. Child prodigy I was not. I cried laughing at my own self. I will give myself credit for knowing the words. Tempo and tune seemed to have escaped me entirely that day, however.
So between the memory of my toddler-auditions and some caterwauling wannabes in Chicago singing in my ear, I move my thoughts to more pleasant Christmas music. Oh dear. Just as I wrote that, some guy on TV started singing “Si-ya-lent night.”
Well, away from the world of American Idol, I heard a song this week that I’d not heard yet this season. I’m not sure why my radio station hasn’t been playing it – because it’s a great song! The choir sang it at our Christmas chapel this week and refreshed my memory of its existence.
This is one of Chris Rice’s songs, and it’s called Welcome to Our World. (Julie C. – just so you’ll know, you are my pick to sing this song – even over Chris. Don’t tell him.)
And speaking of bad auditions…this afternoon when I was home at Mom and Dad’s, having Christmas with my aunt, Dad unearthed several “takes” of me offering renditions of Away in a Manger. I was probably about three. It was no doubt done around the same time I recited Luke 2 that I told you about last week. Wow. Child prodigy I was not. I cried laughing at my own self. I will give myself credit for knowing the words. Tempo and tune seemed to have escaped me entirely that day, however.
So between the memory of my toddler-auditions and some caterwauling wannabes in Chicago singing in my ear, I move my thoughts to more pleasant Christmas music. Oh dear. Just as I wrote that, some guy on TV started singing “Si-ya-lent night.”
Well, away from the world of American Idol, I heard a song this week that I’d not heard yet this season. I’m not sure why my radio station hasn’t been playing it – because it’s a great song! The choir sang it at our Christmas chapel this week and refreshed my memory of its existence.
This is one of Chris Rice’s songs, and it’s called Welcome to Our World. (Julie C. – just so you’ll know, you are my pick to sing this song – even over Chris. Don’t tell him.)
You can go here to read the lyrics and hear a clip.
As I’ve been writing about Advent and studying the Bible to read more of those familiar passages in hopes of seeing something from a new angle, I’ve been caught up in just how real all those people were. All of them were special and chosen to have a part in that moment of history, but all of them were just the you and me of 2000 years ago.
They were people with dreams and worries too.
Mary was a mother who resourcefully found around her the things she needed to make a home for a baby. And she accepted everything that happened – from the change to her marriage plans to a bunch of smelly men barging in on her makeshift nursery when her baby was only hours old.
Joseph was a man who found himself filling the role of a father, even when he wasn’t sure exactly how to do it. He obeyed immediately and without question, even when the things he heard God asking him to do seemed to make no sense.
The shepherds were the least of the social ladder and had probably never been close to babies who were not born with a woolly covering. And yet suddenly they were the first on the visitor list for a baby they didn’t even know.
Simeon was an old man who held to what he believed God had said, even though everyone might have called him crazy. And maybe sometimes he felt crazy. But he still clung to what he knew he heard.
And Jesus – though an extraordinary Baby, was still a baby. Still had to breathe our air and walk our sod. Still had to feel what we feel and experience what we experience.
The Christmas story isn’t a “story.” It was real. And those people weren’t well-groomed, halo bearing, perfectly serene men and women. They were us. Just earlier in history. And He was as real as they were. And He still is.
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