IN FOCUS: Sing the carols of Christmas this year

Merry Christmas!

Not only do we say, "Merry Christmas," but we also sing it. More than any other holiday, Christmas has its music. I love the music of Christmas—well, most of it.

I love the traditional carols like Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful and Joy to the World. I love the classics from Messiah and other classical works. I enjoy some of the popular music like Silver Bells and I'll Be Home for Christmas. I must confess The Little Drummer Boy still mystifies me. I am not sure any mother of a newborn would give a child permission to play his drum for her new one. Maybe it is just me.

Then there were the original Christmas carols. There was the carol Mary sang after she was visited by the angel of the Lord to learn she was to be the one who would bear the Christ child. For Mary, the news that she as an unmarried woman would have a child was shocking. She risked criticism and condemnation for her service to the Savior. Yet her carol was to sing, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

There was the carol of the angel who delivered the good news announcing the arrival of the Savior. It was good news of great joy to all people. That angel was joined by the chorus who traveled from heaven to sing, "Glory to God in the highest." Their song was the first Christian praise chorus.

There was the carol of praise from the shepherds. The Savior had come, not as a great king in a palace, but as a child in a manger in Bethlehem. He came like one of them. It was news for which they praised God and sang the song telling the story of the Savior.

The wise men sang the carol of joy and hope. The one whose birth was proclaimed by the stars was born, and they had found him. They worshipped him because joy had come to the world and hope had been born in a hopeless world.

But perhaps the most wonderful carol at Christmas is the one that is recorded in John. It was a carol that Jesus himself gave us as he spoke to Nicodemus that has been sung in the hearts of Christians for centuries. You know it well, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."

That is the hymn that puts all others in perspective and gives them meaning.

My hope for you this Christmas is that you have the carols of Christmas in your heart. But most importantly, I pray you have the Christmas carol of Jesus in your heart and life. From his love come our hope, our joy, our peace and our very lives.

This Christmas, sing it. Let the world know the hope of Christ that is Christmas.

–-Steve Vernon is associate executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board.