Something about Christmas moves song writers and composers to a special beauty. Irving Berlin closes his great White Christmas with, "may your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white." We could hope that for our loved ones any day of the year. O Little Town of Bethlehem expresses the belief of all Christianity about the season, "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." In bleak winter these words alone, without music, offer warmth and the promise of happy life ahead, with their music they inspire us to see a higher life than we've known and to believe that we will get there. The comma is very important in God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. It does not assume that we are already merry but that "tidings of comfort and joy" will cause us to become merry.
As you can see, I am coated in carols tonight and thinking of the things that the ancients may have prayed for as the days grew short and dark. Their gloom as life took its natural course was misplaced and so, we pray, is ours.
Well, thus endeth the lesson.
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