I want to thank you folks for walking along with me on this wonderful path we have been on since Thanksgiving. As beautiful and meaningful as the songs are the stories behind them are even more telling of the power of a Baby born to be a Sacrifice and then a Savior. I think of the son of slaves, intent on preserving the music of his people. Without the efforts of John Work, Jr and his wife, most of those plantation songs given up in the fields to praise the Lord, would have been lost. I think of a young priest desperate to provide his congregation with some kind of music for Christmas Eve, and in his despair he created the most cherished of all the Christmas songs. I think of a pastor, known throughout this country, a man who sat with a president who was torn from all sides, a pastor who had reached the pinnacle of success in 1865, standing outside an old church in Bethlehem, weeping as the bells tolled on Christmas Eve. I think of three men who didn’t know each other and who, for the love of money, put together one of the most inspiring of the Christmas hymns.

         Several of these hymns were forged in the fire of war and later, on various Christmas Eves, those same songs were sung by both sides as memory, and hope, of better times. Sometimes it was illness, sometimes depression, sometimes desperation, sometimes an overwhelming urge to protect and preserve….whatever it was, there is deep human emotion buried within the words of the songs, an emotion that comes out even now, decades later. The plea of a man who had enough of war, writing “O come, all ye faithful” is understood by all believers. Peace exists only in Christ. We can understand the painful grief of a man who had lost so many that he loved, writing the words, “And in despair I bowed my head; ‘There is no peace on earth,’ I said; ‘For hate is strong, And mocks the song Of peace on earth, good-will to men!” But as Christians we also understand the release of his soul at the point of salvation.

         These songs stir our souls and cause our spirits to soar.

         There is a song I purposely left out. When I asked for favorites, this song was the most popular. I left it out because it isn’t a Christmas song. The first verse is about the Birth, but the whole song paints a complete picture of the Savior. And that is one of the problems with all of these Christmas songs. For some reason, everyone knows the first verse, but then we want to move on. That makes an inspiring hymn into nothing more than just a carol. It is the whole song that weaves the meaning of the author. And so it is with this song I left out. It is my favorite song of all. My favorite Christmas song is “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” but the words to the song I love the most are these;

1.   Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n, and heav’n, and nature sing.

2.   Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

3.   No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

4. He rules the world with truth and grace,
   And makes the nations prove
   The glories of His righteousness,
   And wonders of His love,
   And wonders of His love,
   And wonders, wonders, of His love.

         So, we have reached the end of our series. There are, of course, other Christmas hymns that we sing every year that touch our hearts, but these were the favorites. I deeply appreciate your participation in both the naming of your favorites and reading of these little stories. This was, for me, a labor of love. And this just leaves one more thing for me to say;

Merry Christmas, my friends. A new year is upon us, filled with uncertainty. Remember, however, that our joy, the joy that is indescribable, comes from the Lord. Blessings.