Music, A Sweet, Beautiful Invitation

God loves music.

I know this because maybe nothing threads together humanity more than music, as if it's been placed within our being as a bridge.

A bridge to one another.

A bridge to God.

Many believe that humans communicated through song long before they came to communicate through mere spoken word. This makes sense to me. We have many different languages across cultures that we don't all commonly recognize or understand, yet, our hearts are all moved, our attention driven, by the chords of music.

Early in this Christmas season a friend sent me a video of a choral presentation she was a part of in her community. The music felt like an invitation. A sweet, beautiful invitation.

I wonder if that's what the ultimate roots of the gift of music is: a sweet, beautiful invitation from God.

Driving five hours home from a trip earlier this week, I listened to Christmas music the entire way. I found myself wondering, when the angels appeared to the shepherds, in the delivery of sorts of the very first Christmas card, and the bible tells us:

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

I do wonder, were the angels in the formation of a chorus? Were their words in song, and did they sound like soprano and tenor and alto and base?

I wonder this, because I noticed as I was listening to song after song, words feel different when sung. As if words hold their truest meaning when married with the emotional instrument that is music.

"O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth"

There is something quite majestic that happens inside you when to music you hear your soul feeling its most meaningful worth. On my trip home, something emotional happened in hearing those words.

In song.

Or:

“Hark! The herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”

It is one thing to be told that our soul feels its worth when we are reconciled to God. But to hear those words sung to me, it feels like God is celebrating that reconciliation. As if our togetherness with God is a relationship to be sung and celebrated and not a partnership to be memorized.

I am reflecting on scripture from the book of Colossians this morning. I think it's appropriate for our journey to Bethlehem:

Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God!

On the way to Bethlehem, sing, sing.

Sing a song that becomes a bridge to the world around you.

Sing a song that sounds like accepting a sweet, beautiful invitation from God.

An invitation to behold that baby in a manger.