Wrangler Dani

I’m always an early celebrator of Christmas. The first frosts and speckles of snow (or, in California, afternoon fogginess) have me daydreaming of homemade cookies and shiny bows. But my favorite thing about Christmas is the music.

Christmas is a primarily religious holiday to me, and the ancient songs and words that we sing by heart at Christmas fill the void in my liturgical heart. They speak of seasons, of the sacred moments of breathless wonder, of the idea of holiness in the every day.

I think that we were made for seasons, but our buttoned-up world makes it all too hard to embrace them. We relish turning on the A/C in summer and the heater in winter, the fact that we can drink an iced beverage any time of year.

But Christmas, by contrast, nudges our hearts to lean in to this specific season and time, to avoid running from it with the technology and hurriedness of modern life. Suddenly, the malls that have played nothing but Lady Gaga over their sound systems are playing a chorale version of a hymn that’s been sung exactly that way for hundreds of years. It reminds us that our preferences and our fleeting fads are as shallow and simple as they sound, that what really matters is the redemption offered two thousand years ago by the humble birth of a seemingly unlikely savior.

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!”