The Music of Christmas: an advent journey for your heart & mind

Are you anticipating the holidays with a little more dread than delight? Do the busy schedules and hectic paces keep you from remembering what the season is really supposed to be about? Are you looking for a way to keep Christ the center of your holiday celebrations?

We want to experience the holidays to their fullest, so we plan and schedule and hustle and bustle. We fight traffic and headaches. We impatiently deal with impatient people. We look for the right gift for Cousin Ernie, knowing that it will either be returned or never used. We stuff dozens of white elephant gifts, many from Cousin Ernie, into the trunk of our car for the office gift exchange.

This year, let’s exchange some of the pains for peace. Let’s walk through some of the familiar Christmas songs together, pausing to look a little more deeply, reflect a little more fully. Let’s find meaning inside and behind the Christmas story. Let’s marvel at the goodness of God. Let’s look carefully for the fingerprints of His grace. Let’s make five minutes each morning seem like a sliver of eternity with the Father.

"The Music of Christmas" will offer you a moment each day to think about the deeper spiritual meaning of the holidays. Each devotion centers around a popular Christmas carol or song. Coupled with a Scripture and some points for thought and action, "The Music of Christmas" will bring to your mind the sounds and the sentiments of the holiday season.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace … not pain … this Christmas.