Whether it’s our own home, a childhood home, or the welcoming home of friends, the holidays are typically spent in homes. These can be lovely homes, decorated to the max, ushering in the holiday season. They can be filled with great joys and holiday spirit, as well as the smell of roasts and cinnamon spice in the air. But we know that homes may also be filled with loneliness and grief, sorrows and conflict. And, at the end of the day, the homes empty, the decorations come down, the gifts get stored and we can be left feeling a bit empty as a result. The holidays, whether filled with joy or difficulty, have an ending and often leave us longing for more…

The Christmas season is traditionally filled with many things: lights, trees, gifts, snow—if you’re lucky—and songs, loads of songs. I imagine that without much thought you could come up with five Christmas-themed songs right now. “Have a Holy Jolly Christmas”, “Jingle Bells”, “White Christmas”, “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”, “Little Drummer Boy”, “Santa Baby”—that list took me a little longer than a minute, but all those songs are quite familiar tunes. Now, these songs have little to no Christian significance, they are simply fun and frequently played holiday classics. We get used to hearing them and maybe singing along to the radio, but they don’t typically move our hearts beyond a feeling of nostalgia. But what about these songs: “Joy to the World”, “O Holy Night”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, “Angels We Have Heard On High”, “O Come O Come Emmanuel”? Like the mainstream Christmas songs, it’s easy to sing these hymns of praise with little to no thought about what the words actually mean. But, unlike the others, these songs do have great significance. And so, inspired and encouraged by my church’s children’s ministry director, I’d like to make this Christmas season less about singing and more about worship…c