"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

I thought I'd begin today’s blog with some information on the song It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.  ““It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” is a classic Christmas song written in 1951 by Meredith Willson.  It was originally titled “It’s beginning to look like Christmas”, and has been recorded by many artists but it was a hit by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters.” Source: https://christmas-specials.fandom.com/wiki/It%27s_Beginning_to_Look_a_Lot_Like_Christmas 

This is a special song for me because I remember, one year when Christmas wasn’t too far away, my dad randomly started to sing, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.”  He had a love for Christmas.  One of the lines of the song makes me think of Dad; it says, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas; soon the bells with start, and the thing that will them ring is the carol that you sing right within your heart.”  Dad certainly had a song in his heart.

Perhaps someone wants to ask, “Why such an abiding love for Christmas?  I mean, sure, you get presents and you spend time with family and all that, but it’s so much hustle and bustle.  What is the big deal about Christmas?”  Back in 1972, my dad wrote a song that answers that objection.  The message of his song is that though Christmas has a lot of external traditions attached to it, first and foremost it is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ; it’s a time to rejoice in the fact that this Jesus was born so He could die on a cross for the sin of the human race.

I’m thrilled to have some of Dad's prayers, that he gave on-air for his vocation as a radio announcer.  In a prayer, he declared, “Father in Heaven, we bow at Your feet and give You honor, praise, and adoration.  Today, as we continue to celebrate Christmas, we bless [the name of Jesus]…He is the reason for this season…we rejoice in the birth of Your Son.  Thank You that He came to Earth as a baby, to be our sacrifice, and that through Him we might have eternal life.  We worship and celebrate [Him] today.”  My dad had a deep love for Christmas, because of his deep love for Christ.

Let me conclude with this.  The Christian gospel quartet group the Ball Brothers has a beautiful song that captures what I’m trying to get across.  The song is called It’s about the Cross; it has these words:

“It’s not just about the manger where the Baby lay; it’s not all about the angels who sing for Him that day; it’s not all about the shepherds or the bright and shining star; it’s not all about the wise men who travelled from afar.  It’s about the cross; it’s about my sin.  It’s about how Jesus came to be born once, so that we could be born again.  It’s about the stone that was rolled away, so that you and I could have real life one day…the beginning of the story is wonderful and great, but it’s the ending that can save you, and that’s why we celebrate.”  Amen and amen!

Kevin