Songs for Joshua - Week 8

If I had to put my feelings about Christmas time into song lyrics, I'd choose "it's the most wonderful time of the year" without hesitation. I LOVE Christmas. I love sending cards and packages, baking cookies, eating cookies & candy & all the other yummy food. I love seeing decorations and lights on houses and Christmas trees peeking out from front windows. I love all the traditions and celebration. What really warms my heart, however, is the music. At no other time of year will you hear Christ's name on the radio and tv as much as you will this month.

This year, the music is really touching my heart. I think it's because this year, I'm a mother. And even more than that, I'm the mother of a little boy. As I hear all the lyrics celebrating Christ's birth, I think about Mary. I wonder if she really knew what it meant to be the mother of the Savior. I'm sure she watched him sleep and brushed the curls around his ears like I do while Josh is falling asleep. I'm sure when she held him she felt like her body was just too small to contain all the love she was feeling. I'm sure that she looked at him and hoped for his future. But did she know how hated He would be in the future? Did she know how He would suffer and die? I don't think I could bear it if I knew that someday Joshua would be reviled and die in such a way. Did Mary and Joseph understand why Jesus was born just to die? There are many people in my life who I would sacrifice myself for. But there is no one on earth who I would sacrifice my son for. And yet isn't that what we are really celebrating at Christmas? We're celebrating the birth of Christ, who was born specifically so that He could be the sacrifice for us! And that, my friends, is the ironic beauty of this season. Both Ben and I hope that as Josh grows up, he will understand that we aren't celebrating presents or "getting" at Christmas. We are celebrating the love and hope and mercy and justice that was embodied in Jesus Christ.

I *love* the song I chose for this week. I love it because it starts out quiet and then builds and builds until it fills your ears with truth. I love truth and honesty in songs. The kind that when you're done listening, you can understand what the characters or the author is feeling. When I heard this song, I came away thinking that yes, a baby does change everything! Our baby changed everything for Ben and I. Our priorities, our hopes, our fears...everything. And Joshua will change the world simply by being in it. But no baby in history changed everything the way Jesus did.

Merry Christmas, everyone. We love you.

ps...if you don't normally actually listen to the song each week, I'd really encourage you to take the time to listen to these two. Two? Yep. Two. Call the second one a Christmas bonus. :) As always, if the player doesn't show up, press the 'pop-out' button and actually listen to these songs. They are so beautiful.

"A Baby Changes Everything" - Faith Hill

Teenage girl, much too young
Unprepared for what’s to come
A baby changes everything

Not a ring on her hand
All her dreams and all her plans
A baby changes everything
A baby changes everything

The man she loves she’s never touched
How will she keep his trust
A baby changes everything
A baby changes everything
And she cries, oh she cries

She has to leave, go far away
Heaven knows she can’t stay
A baby changes everything

She can feel it’s coming soon
There’s no place, there’s no room
A baby changes everything
A baby changes everything
And she cries and she cries, oh she cries

Shepherds all gather round
Up above a star shines down
A baby changes everything

Choir of Angels say
Glory to the newborn king
A baby changes everything
A baby changes everything, everything, everything, everything
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah

My whole life is turned around
I was lost and now I’m found
A baby changes everything


"Welcome To Our World" - Chris Rice

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world