Music Notes

December is a month in which many warm feelings are exchanged. People give and receive gifts, gather together as a family, and spend time remembering the birth of Christ. It is a wonderful season for us to contemplate God’s gift to us in Jesus, and the breadth and lengths to which He was willing to go to redeem us and show us His love.
But even before Christmas comes, there is another season that can give us much hope – Advent. Often overlooked and rushed through to get to Christmas, it is a wonderful time to look back at God’s faithfulness to His promises. It has really come to be my favorite season of the year. We will hear in our scripture readings and in the music this season of how God foretold through prophets of long ago about the coming Messiah. He would be born to save His people and redeem them from their sins. Advent shows us that God is faithful – even though people waited for hundreds, and even thousands of years for Jesus to come, God sent him at just the right time.
But in addition to this, Advent points us to the future as well, as Jesus promised that He will one day return. We can rest in the knowledge that God was faithful in his first promise to send His Son as we await Jesus’ coming again. But at that time, Scripture tells us that old things will pass away, and a new Heaven and Earth will be established, where we will be with God, and He with us. What a wonderful hope. The choir will sing about this in December, with their anthem, “E’en So Lord Jesus, Quickly Come,” which speaks of a present darkness in the world that will end when we are with Jesus, and we will need no lamp or sun, for He will be our Light.
As we enter into this season of Advent and Christmas, remembering God’s fulfilled promise in sending the Messiah, may we not forget to have hope for the future. We can trust that He will one day come again, and all things will be restored.