Christmas - Lisa Tyson

Aside from my Christmas tree, my favorite thing about the Christmas season are the Christmas Carols. While I appreciate all of the new and fun Christmas songs, I actually love the old school, all four verses, piano or guitar accompaniment, people singing harmony Christmas Carols we sang at church when I was a little girl. It was like the music minister flipped a switch the Sunday after Thanksgiving and all we sang were the classics: Silent Night, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Joy to the World, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Angels We Have Heard on High! I mean, who does not remember discovering that the angels were not singing about “in egg shells see day oh” and being relieved because it made no sense. 

The carol that has entered my mind most frequently over the past couple of days is Oh Holy Night. Not the whole thing, but the line that says “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices….” The only word that I think that I am mastering this season is “weary.” There is no thrill and my genuine hope is that 2021 is “less” in every way—less COVID, less politics, less racial tension, less educational chaos, less financial insecurity, less EVERYTHING. 

But, I think that I am going to change the carol in my mind. I saw a Facebook post asking for people to post their favorite line of a carol and why they loved it. I scrolled and scrolled. There were funny ones.  Serious ones. Secular ones. Lots of “weary world rejoices.” I thought and thought about all the songs I grew up singing and landed on a line in the last verse of Silent Night: “Radiant beams from thy holy face, with the DAWN OF REDEEMING GRACE.” When I read those words, it hit me. Redeeming grace “dawned” in a manger many years ago.  That same redeeming grace still dawns every day because Jesus is still alive. He knows what this year has been like for each of us and His redeeming grace has covered every single moment. 

So weary momma, this holiday season, look at the radiance in His face in the middle of your weary world. Let the dawn of redeeming grace bring you the thrill of hope. Rejoice! Because, Joy to the World, the Lord IS come. Let earth (that includes us) receive her King.

Lisa Tyson
Sky Ranch SkyMom Guest Writer