One of the things I most look forward to this time of year is Christmas music. Many of the radio stations around our area switch to all Holiday programming, and many streaming providers offer all Christmas music stations. If you’ve been around a few years, you probably have your Holiday favorites… year after year we hear Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Michael Buble, Mariah Carey, Kelly Clarkson, and others belt out the most-often played versions of our favorite Holiday tunes.
However, what about the artists that produce versions of these timeless tunes that don't often get listened to? This year, I’ve been trying out different arrangements of some of these familiar tunes… versions that are perhaps rarely listened to, or you could even say underappreciated.
I can’t help but think about that first Christmas… the night Jesus was born… He really deserved to be born with pomp and circumstance and fanfare and celebration… but God had other plans… arrangements that on the surface seemed to give a sense of “underappreciation”. This week, I talk about the Christmas story from the perspective of what it looked like on the surface and God's plan for a deeper meaning... a story that should always amaze us yet humble us.
Scriptures highlighted this week include selections from Luke 2 and Jeremiah 29.