Advent Devotion 8 - Monday, December 6

There’s a Song in the Air!
(also known as The Christmas Song)

There’s a song in the air!
There’s a star in the sky!
There’s a mother’s deep prayer
And a baby’s low cry!
And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing,
For a manager in Bethlehem cradles a King!

As a brand-new, first-time grandfather—Leslie’s son, Charles Chapel Mize, was born September 9—I am naturally enamored of babies and the miracle of birth just now, so the very human aspects of the nativity (as echoed in “a mother’s deep prayer and a baby’s low cry”) certainly resonate with me. When the mystery of the incarnation is added to the already mystical event of childbirth, what happened in Bethlehem two thousand years ago becomes so astonishing, so awe inspiring, that it truly takes my breath away. All I can think to say is “Wow!” but that is clearly not enough. No wonder Josiah G. Holland, the poet whose words became the Christmas hymn There’s a Song in the Air! uses an almost overwhelming number of exclamation points—four in the first verse alone—in his celebratory song about the birth of Jesus Christ, the King of Kings.

There can also be no surprise that Holland imagines a majestic song filling the air “while the beautiful [the angels] sing.” I do realize that nowhere in the Bible do we read that angels sing. The angel that appeared to the shepherds said (not sang), “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy”; and he was joined by a multitude of the heavenly host saying (not singing), “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” Nevertheless, I feel certain—not only as this hymn proclaims but also as our own experience of the Christmas miracle all but requires—that there was, indeed, a song in the air. How else could the most miraculous event in all of human history be celebrated except in the singing of angels? Let’s face it: “Wow” and multiple exclamation points simply do not suffice for the announcement of the birth of the Son of God. The angels must sing!

Lord, fill us with awe, dazzle us with light, charm us with the songs of angels throughout Advent and on Christmas as we contemplate and celebrate your good news of great joy: the birth, life, death, and resurrection of your son, our savior, Christ the Lord. Amen!

Richard Lane