Christmas gives us something to sing about …

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A few days ago I caught myself singing along to Christmas songs and carols I had playing on my iPhone while sitting in my car. Have you ever noticed just how easy it is to sing along with these Christmas tunes?

My singing was for the joy of it, not for anyone to hear and enjoy. I’m a preacher, not a vocal performer, unlike someone like Charity Tilleman-Dick, who has been blessed by God with a singing voice others want to listen to. But she came perilously close to losing that gift, according to the following report …

    On November 5, 2010, CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta reported a heartwarming story of renewed health and purpose on the CNN evening news. Six years ago, budding opera star Charity Tillemann-Dick, then just 20 yrs old, was handed a potential death sentence. Pulmonary Hypertension was the diagnosis. Arteries feeding her lungs were registering unusually high pressure, putting her at constant risk of heart failure. Determined to hold on to her voice and her career as long as possible, she persevered with the help of dramatic medications for the next five years, until her body could take it no longer. Without a double lung transplant, she would lose not just her voice, but her life.

    Finally, with a desperate plea for surgeons to try to spare her vocal chords the trauma of a tracheotomy, she submitted to the surgery. Almost exactly one year ago, she awoke from a month-long, medically induced coma with the news that her new lungs would provide the bountiful breath needed to sing, but not knowing if her vocal chords had been spared irreparable trauma. In time, sound returned, and with it SINGING. She now returns to the stage with a new sense of gratitude.

    “When I sing,” she says, “I’m taken to another place … of transcendent beauty.”

Charity now has greater purpose for singing, something to sing about!

So did young Mary, as she pondered the news she would be the mother of Jesus. While visiting her cousin, Elizabeth, and thinking of God picking her to bring the Messiah into the world, Mary couldn’t help but sing for joy!

“Mary responded, ‘Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever,’” Luke 1:46-55.

Now, at Christmas, as we consider the great gift of God giving His Son to the world, we still rejoice and praise God with our singing. Christmas gives us something to sing about!

    Joy to the world! The Lord has come
    Let earth receive her King!
    Let every heart prepare Him room

    And heaven and nature sing
    And heaven and nature sing
    And heaven, and heaven and nature sing

Sing, friends, sing, for Christ has come!

Merry Christmas!

Scotty