JOANNA HODGES|GUEST

‘Tis the season of bright and glimmering baubles, loud and busy parties, and exuberant and merry music. As we prepare for Christmas, we eagerly anticipate singing our favorite festive songs around the piano. Through well-known happy tunes in a major key, we proclaim “Joy to the World” because Christ came to crush the head of the serpent. We gather our friends to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and can’t wait to hear our kids shout “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in the church program. Yet the more holidays God gives us in this broken world, the more we realize that every Christmas season rightfully includes not only the triumphal tone of major keys, but also the wistful waiting and somber tone of the carols in a minor key.

A Partial Celebration

Even though the Savior accomplished His earthly mission and sits at the Father’s right hand to reign in victory, those nagging foes of the world, the flesh, and the devil still assault us here on earth. They don’t take a vacation during Christmas, and often it seems they rear their ugly heads even more intensely this time of year. Our hearts may be filled with awe and wonder as we read our Advent devotional in the morning, yet by the afternoon we are overwhelmed by the Christmas day menu, family dynamics around the holiday table, and the jam-packed calendar of parties. We scroll through Facebook’s Time Hop pictures of past Christmas gatherings and realize how much our own bodies and those of our loved ones have been marred by disease, dysfunction, and death over the years. Sometimes it’s not easy to take a deep breath and sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” with smiles on our faces when the sadness of a sin-cursed existence makes us want to silence our voices and quietly mourn.

But there’s room for longing and lack at Christmas. The missing stocking from the mantle and the empty chair at the table give us all the more reason to turn to the lyrics of those songs in minor keys. With prayerful hearts and open mouths, we can cry “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and entreat the Savior to “dispel the shadows of the night and turn our darkness into light.” Even at Christmas when it seems everyone around us is jolly, Christ loves to hear our lament. It is good and right to grieve the pain caused by sin. What better time than Christmas to remember that He entered into our suffering and sympathizes with our struggles because He endured them as well (Heb. 4:15). Yet He provides hope in hard times: though He came once as a baby to deliver, He will return as the divine warrior to rescue us again. On that day the shadows of the night will flee, and we won’t have any need for the sun’s light for Christ will shine so brilliantly (Rev. 21:23). He will take any lingering darkness of this life away.

Wisdom in the Waiting

But while we wait for the Light of the World to return, we can ask for help from another lesser-known verse of that same carol in a minor key: “O come, O Wisdom from on high, who ordered all things mightily; to us the path of knowledge show and teach us in its ways to go.” Each one of us requires the wisdom of God’s Word to navigate the sorrows of our circumstances while choosing joy during tough seasons, especially when those times fall during holiday celebrations. By the Spirit’s comforting help, we can still sing the jubilant songs in a major key even when our hearts may be breaking in minor-key chords. God gives reason to rejoice in the midst of pain for He promises that even the most dreadful things He will turn for our good (Rom. 8:28). The difficulties of this life will bear the fruit of steadfastness, making us perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. We can count it all joy when we face adversity because God never wastes it—what an impetus to sing (James 1:1-3).

Singing in Sweet Seasons

For those of us who are in a season where many of our days feel merry and bright, we can rejoice in God’s blessings. Sing those songs in major keys with gusto, but don’t let the glitter of this season make you forget we haven’t yet arrived. Deep down, we understand that no amount of shiny wrapping paper can hide this world’s blemishes, the flaws and cracks in our hearts, and the separation in our relationships. As we join our voices with brothers and sisters in Christ going through trials, we too need to take the words of this verse upon our lips: “O come, thou Key of David, come and open wide our heav’nly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.” Christ is coming back again, and we sing our Christmas hymns in anticipation of that final day when all together we will shout our “Joy to the World” as He makes all things new “far as the curse is found.”

Photo by David Beale on Unsplash