Your grown-up Christmas list

Have you been enjoying the music of the season?  My home and car have been filled with Christmas music since Thanksgiving!  I have always been a big fan of music, especially Christian music.  I have satellite radio in my car and it rarely leaves the “Spirit” channel except for the occasional session with music from the 70’s or a quick check on local traffic and weather.  My dad would call a lot of my music “noisy” and sometimes I have to agree.  But overall, I like songs for the lyrics and there is often profound truth and great theology in Christian music.  So I have decided to end the year blogging about some of my favorite Christian songs and why I think they are worth thinking about.  I will include a link to You Tube so you can listen to the song after reading the blog.  Warning: some of the songs may rock – but focus on the lyrics and see if God speaks to you through them.  I like what E.Y. Harburg said about music: “Words make you think a thought. Music makes you feel a feeling. A song makes you feel a thought”.  Christian music often takes what i know about God and causes me to feel what I know about God.
I have been a fan of Amy Grant for many years.  Her story isn’t one of perfection, but then I only know One that meets that criteria!  I used to put the family in the car early on Christmas day and head off to my parent’s house for Christmas.  Jim and the boys would usually sleep for the first few hours of the trip.  As a pastor, Jim would usually preach two or three Christmas eve services and it took him awhile to “recover” on Christmas day.  I would put my cds in my Walkman (the I-Pod hadn’t been invented yet) and I would enjoy Christmas music and the scenery as I drove, and the family slept.  Amy Grant’s Christmas albums were always among my favorites.  This year I have revisited one of those songs because of an e-mail I received from a friend.

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{/source}I have enjoyed watching the reports of the soldiers, returning from Iraq in time for the holidays.  There are few things more touching than seeing those moms and dads bend down as their children run to their open arms.  Yesterday I received an e-mail about a soldier who will be staying behind in Iraq instead of returning home with the others.  He will be home soon, but not for Christmas. This song came to mind after I read that e-mail.  The title of the song is “My Grown-up Christmas List“.  Kelly Clarkson did a version of that song and the link is at the bottom of this blog.  The words will make you think.  If you could make a request for Christmas this year, what would it be? 

John 14:13-15 says, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”  That verse seems to promise what it does not.  The truth of Scripture is found in the whole of Scripture and the verses from John are best understood in light of these verses from James.  “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…” (James 4:3).  Examine your request…and then examine why you want it.  At first I prayed for a miracle that would bring my friend’s son home for Christmas.  By the end of the prayer I was praying that God would do a great work in that young man’s life and the lives of his family, and I prayed for a Christmas miracle – for someone in Iraq.  Most in that country don’t understand our Christmas…many in our country don’t understand it either.  What is your “grown-up Christmas wish?”  Have you made that request to God?  And does your Christmas wish line up with God’s Christmas will?  If so…may He be glorified by all that you have prayed for.  Enjoy the song, and pray for that soldier.  His name is Frank.  And use the comment button to leave your “grown-up Christmas wish” or prayer if you would like.

In closing, may I share my Christmas wish with all of you.  I hope that you will share the love of the Christ child with someone.  I hope that you will have joy, peace and a great sense of God’s purpose for your life.  Jesus came to earth and one day he will come again.  This song expresses what I wish for each of you.  Enjoy it and have a very merry Christmas!


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