Dear Edgeboro Family & Friends,

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! With the season comes its own traditions – trees, candles, stars, and all that stuff, but of course, music. There are so many good Christmas carols out there, so much so that it’s hard to get to singing everyone’s favorites during church! Still, we end up singing a lot of them, mostly on Christmas Eve. As I think about many of those carols, I realize that many have been around for quite a while. Take a look at the carols we sing at the 3:00pm and 5:30pm Christmas Eve services and when they were written:

O Come, All Ye Faithful (1743)
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (9th century, translated 1854)
Joy to the World (1719)
O Little Town of Bethlehem (1868)
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (1739)
Angels from the Realms of Glory (1816)
Away in a Manger (1887)
Angels We Have Heard on High (1855)
Good Christian Friends, Rejoice! (Medieval times, translated 1853)
Silent Night (1818)
Jesus Call Thou Me (17th century, translated 1890)
Morning Star, O Cheering Sight! (1657)
Candle Glowing (1939)

The most recent carol on this list was written 83 years ago, and the average age of these carols is over 200! These carols have staying power!

Imagine how many people will sing these songs just this Christmas season. Imagine how many people have sung these songs over the centuries. (You can’t! There’s too many. That’s the point.) The praise that we offer on Christmas Eve is so much bigger than us alone! One of the things I deeply value about being a part of the Church is the connection it allows us to have with so many other people. In singing these songs, our voices will join the chorus of billions of others we share these songs with – the living, the saints, and the angels together!

The presence of Jesus in the world evokes the praise of billion.
That’s how big of a deal Jesus coming to the world really is!
And when you stop and think about it, it’s pretty amazing that our voices are a part of it all.

So “good Christian friends, rejoice!” Add your voice to the “choirs of angels” and the “citizens of heav’n above” once again. “The Lord is come. Let earth receive her king” and “ev’ry heart prepare him room.” May the blessings of our coming Savior be with us all, for “light and life to all he brings!”

Belting it out with you,
Pastor Dan