Let There Be Song!!!!!

Top of the weekend my friends!! It’s the gift that keeps on giving!! Let there be Song!!

In the Beginning, the morning stars sang together and created things stood face to face with their Creator, as they burst into song! Talk about melodies from heaven! (Thanks Kirk)

Revelation 19:1 shares the lyrics: “Hallelujah, Salvation and Glory, Honor and Power unto the LORD our GOD”! For the Lord our God is mighty…ahh sorry I couldn’t help it. Notice how instinctively we embrace the power of song! It’s in our DNA to lift our spirits. Amen!!!

In December the holiday classics are everywhere! For about 25 days most of the world will sing Christmas Carols galore! Did you know that the term “Christmas Carols”was a type of festive circle dance in “France”. Actually “Carols” were written and sung there during all four seasons. However the tradition somehow stuck for Christmas. “Oui oui”

According to the Museum of the Bible! There are nearly 10 thousand songs about Christmas. The Museum lists the first title of these holiday classics as “Angel’s Hymn.” The lyrics included “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests,”. Which came from Luke 2:14. It was written around AD 129. Reportedly around 30 years after the death of the apostle John the Baptist.

Others classics like “Silent Night”, written in 1818 by a young Austrian priest, who asked the church organist to write a melody to be played on the guitar since the organ was broken for December 24th Midnight mass.

In 1847, a French parish priest asked a local poet to write a Christmas carol, which quickly spread throughout France. The hauntingly beautiful “O, Holy Night” was an instant hit, but the French church soon banned it when they discovered the author was a socialist and the composer Jewish. But people sung it anyway. Amen!

Our modern day holiday classics include “Blue Christmas”. Which in Western Christian tradition is a day in the Advent season, marking the longest night of the year. Also a pretty good Christmas blues song that was made famous by Elvis Priestley. Dark joke…..What??

Anyway, here’s a few more, Jingle Bells" is one of the most commonly sung Christmas songs in the world. Originally written for Thanksgiving in 1850 by James Lord Pierpoint at Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts to celebrate the Medford Hayrides.

"Merry Christmas Baby" is an R&B Christmas standard credited to Lou Baxter and Johnny Moore. In 1947, Johnny Moore's Three Blazers featuring band member Charles Brown on vocals. A holiday classic!!

Finally “White Christmas” written by Irvin Berlin is the best selling song of all time! For both the Christmas holiday and commercial music market in general. Since the advent of recorded music! It’s estimated sales well in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

Scientific studies have shown that when people sing, endorphins and oxytocin are released by the brain which in turn lowers stress and anxiety. Which also explains the reports that singing also minimizes depression and feeling of loneliness.

In closing, May you sing with those you love! Hug those who love you and enjoy the love of family and friends this holiday season. Oh yeah! Let there be Song!!! Sing lots of them!! I love it when you’re happy!!  Donut ever forget it!