The Sixth Day of Christmas: Sing a New Song

Anything happening?  Have you experienced an annunciation, a vision, or perhaps a dream?  Have you found the baby this Christmas as the wise persons and shepherds did on that first Christmas long ago? Trust me, something is happening whether you know it or not.  How can I say that?  I can say that because I believe with Thomas Merton, that the message of hope that Christmas brings is that God loves us whether we know it or not.  

My son, Paul, singing his new song
with a new guitar--one Christmas
"long, long ago,
in a galaxy far, far away"

In that sense, something is always happening  in us and in the world (and especially at Christmas) because Love is here embracing us and our world.  Our lives have been re-shaped by yet another year’s events, the joys and the sorrows, the loss and the gain, the good and the bad, and  we will soon move into a new year.  The song we sang in 1999 or in 2015 no longer fits our situation.  So much has happened in us and in the world we know and so much has changed. I am reminded of the song from Les Miserables, “There’s a grief that can’t be spoken.  There’s a pain goes on and on.  Empty chairs at empty tables, now my friends are dead and gone.”  Many of my friends are gone and will not be with me in 2016. I have no choice, you have no choice.  We will have to sing a new song. The songs we sang yesterday no longer fit the present time.

That new song is in you now waiting to be sung.  The lyrics are there already waiting to burst forth and fit themselves to the melody that is already playing within your heart.  The song is a gift—a Christmas gift on this sixth day.  Will you accept the new song and start singing?

Why not join Howard Thurman and say, “I Will Sing a New Song”

“The old song of my spirit has wearied itself out.

It has long ago been learned by heart;

It repeats itself over and over,

Bringing no added joy to my days or lift to my spirit.

I will sing a new song.

I must learn the new song for the new needs.

I must fashion new words born of all the new growth

   of my life—of my mind—of my spirit.

I must prepare for new melodies that have 

   never been mine before,

That all that is within me may lift my voice unto God.

Therefore, I shall rejoice with each new day

And delight my spirit in each fresh unfolding.

I will sing, this day, a new song unto the Lord.”