I love Christmas Carols. I love the ones I grew up through attending church schools. And I love some I’ve become acquianted with during my years as a Christian.
I don’t always love their theology, though. Consider the second verse of Away In A Manger:
The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes,
But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.
I love thee, Lord Jesus! look down from the sky,
And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh.
Very sweet, but, why is this saying baby Jesus didn’t cry?’ All babies cry and it’s perfectly normal. It’s all they know how to do at that point. It’s how they express themselves. It’s not sinful for a newboard baby to cry!
I also have trouble with O Little Town of Bethlehem. It has some beautiful words early on like:
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
But then later on it has
No ear may hear His coming
But in this world of sin
Where meek souls will receive him still
The dear Christ enters inO holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born in us today
Now we’ve shifted to an ‘invite Jesus into your heart” paradigm. I have so many problems with that. Hopefully I can explain someday. For now, it’s Christmas Day! Have a wonderful day today!