Make the Music Yours

I was riding in my car one day, scanning radio stations to find something of interest.  I happened upon a news program.  The station was playing a recording of an interview they’d done with a musician.  They were playing that recording that particular day because the word was out that this singer/songwriter had died of complications of Covid.  I didn’t recognize the artist’s name or his voice or the titles of songs the man had written.  I reached for the scan button to move on from this conversation with a man, now deceased, of whom I’d never heard.  But the announcer seemed so moved by this composer’s death that I couldn’t change the station.  I listened for a while longer hoping to learn why this man and his music were so special to him.  I filed the artist’s name in my mind and determined to learn more about him when I arrived at home. 

 When I searched Apple Music and YouTube, I found all kinds of songs this man had written and stories of the road he shared with fans and reporters.  He’d led a pretty rough life.  He’d been quite a drinker.  He was a cancer survivor, a cancer brought on by his decades of chain smoking.  After the surgery and radiation treatment, he needed the help of a speech therapist to regain his facility in speaking and singing.  His voice was different after the treatments, deeper and more mellow than before.  As I listened to a few of the hundreds of songs this man had composed and recorded, a strange and haunting thought crossed my mind.  This man’s music had been around for most of my life, but I had never heard it.  I didn’t know it existed.  The music was there, but had never touched my ears or my heart.  But now I was hearing it.  Now I was learning the lyrics.  Now, with my trusty guitar in hand, I learned to play a couple of the songs I’d missed for so long.  Now, after decades of living without that music, it was truly mine. 

 The song of Christmas, the story of God stepping into time and space in the form of the baby of Bethlehem, has been in our world for more than two thousand years but, sadly, many people have never really heard it, much less experienced its life-changing message.  For them, Christmas sounds like a commercial inviting you to save 30% on your way to the consummate consumer holiday, or the predictably shallow sappy storyline of a Hallmark movie.  But then, if you listen, someone crosses your path who’s been touched and changed by Jesus, someone who invites you to hear what He said and celebrate what He’s done, someone whose love for Jesus compels you to find and experience the melody and message of His life for yourself.  The music is there to be found.  Just because you haven’t heard it doesn’t make it any less real.  You may hear it in a carol sung by a choir, or in a group of children dressed up like angels and shepherds and Magi and a boy and girl drafted into portraying Mary and Joseph in spite of their friends teasing them about being in love.  You may hear it in the stories of scripture that do their best to render God’s greatest miracle into words.  

 Once you hear the music of Christmas, you can make it yours.  You can learn its message.  You can make the Jesus story the story of your life.  You can be transformed by the grace and truth that shine from His face.  You can make the Christmas music the best part of who you are. 

 And then, you can make the music yours in an even deeper way by sharing it with others.  You, like the shepherds, can tell everyone about the difference Jesus has made in your life.  You can take the song into places where grief and despair have left a sad silence.  And the more you give that song away, the more it is truly yours. 

 Still your harried holiday heart and listen for the song of Christmas.  It’s there to be heard.  And when you hear that good news of great joy, welcome it into your life.  Hear the song of Christmas, then make the music yours.