And Love Would Never End

One of the things I enjoy most about the Christmas season is the music. For me the three primary ingredients of a Christmas mood are festive lights (sight), baking cookies (smell) and music (hearing). (This assumes, of course, a football game in the background). Angela and the girls get a little tired of my routine because I listen to the same music over and over again. I have three favorites: Harry Connick Jr.’s When My Heart Finds Christmas, the Vince Guaraldi Trio’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Amy Grant’s Home for Christmas. That’s right, these are even better than anything I might listen to by U-2 at this time of year.

Angela and I have a strong fondness for Amy Grant because her music helped shape our faith at crucial times in our lives. For me, it was the mid-80’s when I had just graduated from college, was a new Christian, and her albums Age to Age and Straight Ahead became staples of my drive-time listening. Later, Unguarded and Lead Me On, with their faster tempo, became my favorite pop music, period. Yeah, I had a crush on Amy, of course, but her music truly ministered to me.

Angela’s experience was more profound (this is usually the case). Finding herself spiritually malnourished from a legalistic church upbringing and a rough college campus ministry experience, she was for all intents and purposes an “ex-Christian” when she was invited by a friend to take a car ride in which they listened to Amy Grant music the whole time. Angela wept at hearing of a God who actually loves us and whose tender mercies we are invited to embrace. This was a turning point for her spiritually.

All of which is to say that one of my favorite Christmas songs is Grant’s Grown-Up Christmas List, in which she sings about what the birth of Christ intends to bring about in this often harsh and cruel world.

I’m not a child, but my heart still can dream. So here’s my lifelong wish, my grown-up christmas list. Not for myself, but for a world in need.

No more lives torn apart,
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts.
And everyone would have a friend,
And right would always win,
And love would never end.

This is my grown-up christmas list.It can be overwhelming to think about, but not if each of us realizes that we can be one tiny part of helping this come true. Merry Christmas.