I’m sitting in my room with the lights out, gazing out into the pre-dawn greatest. I have read in Psalms. I have read in Proverbs. I’ve spent time contemplating things of God; now I am just enjoying quiet Christmas music in the background as I look out the window. I noticed that a song has come on my stereo, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas…” It’s a song I really enjoy because I know what Christmas is about.
What if you don’t know what Christmas is all about? What kind of song does this become? It becomes a song of wishful thinking, daydreaming about the good old days, and the vain hope that tomorrow will be better. As I found myself listening to the words instead of just the Christmas emotion that they generate, I noticed that there was nothing in the song about a baby being born in a manger. There was nothing about God becoming man. There was nothing about the hope that is in us. The closest I could come was that line which says “If the fates allow.” That’s not much to hope on.
Since I know about the incarnation and how the virgin birth was the beginning of the path to the cross and that that led to the resurrection, I can find great joy in this song. It’s not because of this song itself. The song is really just the song of desperation when you think about it, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t rejoice in the creativity of the writer because we know why we can have a merry little Christmas.
I hope for you that the cross means as much to you as the manger and that the empty tune is less significant than the creche.
Merry Christmas.
homo unius libri
Tuesday, December 9, 2025
Opus 2025-563: A Song of Desperation
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Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.