A little Christmas *cheer*...

There truly is nothing like Christmas music.  I've been playing it every chance I get in my classroom...probably to the point that my kids are sick of it...:)  (Of course, they could be sick of it because I tell them that if they can't hear the music, they're too loud...and then I turn it down super low...evil, but it works!)  We've been singing carols at church, they're all over the radio...I even wake up singing them in the mornings...

I never can make up my mind which is my favorite.  Every year it changes.  Lately though (if I had to choose...), I would have to say that the one that most stirs my heart is "Hark, the Herald Angel Sings..."  It tells, in musical form, the beauty of the gospel, and the sheer joy with which the angels must have proclaimed the birth of Him who would bring the reconciliation of man to God and with His blood redeem us from the wrath we deserved.  The words are beautiful, and so powerful:

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

My favorite words, however, are in the third verse:  "Mild He lays His glory by/Born that man no more may die".  It's a part of the Gospel we don't think about nearly often enough:  what a humbling, gracious, beautiful thing!  Jesus, the very Son of God, set aside all the glory He knew in the heavenly realms, the radiance, the praise, the majesty and chose to come here; to be born as a baby (which is in a whole other realm from God of the Universe...), to grow up and live as a man, that He alone might put His righteousness upon us by serving as the only perfect sacrifice.  And not only that, He did it mildly, with absolute humility and grace! 

The thought of such humility, such grace, holiness, love, and perfect, majestic redemption overwhelms my heart.  His sacrifice is our only hope.  I pray that today, your heart and mind might be overwhelmed with these truths and that you might find absolute delight and satisfaction in the One who mildly laid "His glory by".