When I think of Christmas music, one of the first albums that comes rushing to my mind is John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together. Every Christmas at home, for as long as I can remember, this was one of the albums that was in constant rotation. It's a classic and will always be a part of Christmas for me. It also includes one of the few bearable versions of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that exist. As many times as I've heard these songs, however, it wasn't until last Christmas that I really paid attention to the song "The Christmas Wish," sung by Kermit, and it has since become one of my all-time favorite Christmas songs.
When asked what my favorite Christmas carol is, I have pretty much always said "O Holy Night." Okay, maybe I haven't always said that, but it's what I've said ever since I've been an adult and somewhat mature. I learned a couple of years ago that I love Celtic Woman's performance of this carol and it is now my go to version.
Another song that will always have a place on my Christmas playlist is "Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)" by Amy Grant. I've always enjoyed this song, but it took on much greater significance for me after an experience I had last year. It happened the morning that I left Provo to drive home for the Christmas break. I was leaving quite early that morning and I had agreed to give a friend a ride to the Provo airport. His flight didn't leave until a few hours later, but he was okay leaving that early. Well, we drove to the airport only to find a car full of people parked outside the main entrance because the airport didn't open for another couple of hours. This other carload of people had been planning on dropping off one of their passengers and then starting their trip down to Texas. Well, when we drove up they started asking us if we could possibly wait there at the airport with their friend until the airport opened because it was too cold to wait outside but they really needed to get on the road. All I could think was, "well, I need to get on the road as well. What makes you think that I want to delay my plans a couple of hours" and I started getting annoyed that they acted like it wouldn't be any kind of problem for me. Anyway, we finally decided that I would take both my friend and this random girl back to our apartment complex where they could wait in the lounge until the airport opened and somebody else could take them, allowing myself to get on the road as well. As the girl was loading her luggage into my car, her and her group kept thanking me and saying that I was an answer to prayer. While this was all very kind stuff that they were saying, I had gotten into a really bad mood for being delayed (which is silly, because I would have been delayed anyway whether this other group was a part of it or not) and was just grumpy about everything. I talked to my friend about this later on and he said that it didn't really show that I was as put out as I was, but I definitely felt it.
After dropping them off at Alta and arranging a new ride for them, I hit the road again very grumpy and stewing over the events of the morning. I had a CD of Christmas music playing in my car and the very next song that started playing was "Breath of Heaven." As I listened to the song, I started thinking about how the Christmas season is all about Christ - His birth, life, example, sacrifice, love...everything. Well, this made me realize how very un-Christlike I had behaved during this experience. It was the Christmas season and instead of caring about how I could help out and be charitable, I was only thinking about myself and my precious hour of time. I felt very ashamed about how I had reacted and was very humbled by this message of Christ. Now I think of that morning every time that I hear "Breath of Heaven." It is a lesson that I will always cherish.
So, this Christmas season, let's be sure to fit in some great Christmas music as we celebrate and keep our thoughts turned toward Christ.
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