It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas everywhere you go. Take a look at the five and ten glistening once again, with candy canes and silver lanes that glow. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Toys in every store, but the prettiest sight to see is the holly that will be on your own front door.
It is not completely clear what Meredith Wilson’s inspiration was in 1951 when he wrote this Christmas standard, but it has become a classic part of the Christmas season ever since.
There is something honest and candid about the way this song describes the busy-ness of the holiday season – the ways we are all running around gathering gifts, seeing the grand decorations, listening for the familiar sounds, and the moments when parents are just trying to survive. And yet, there is a thoughtful pause in the midst of all we are doing to find the true meaning of the season.
So the question is, what is the carol that we sing within our heart?
If we’re thinking about literal carols, there are a myriad of options. And I don’t know about you, but I find myself singing different ear worms depending on the day.
However, perhaps we need to think in terms of the “music of the heart” that Howard Thurman spoke of. It is something so much deeper than any single melody. It is the love that was placed within us by our Creator. It speaks in a language all its own, with a song all its own, though it can be expressed in many different ways.
That is the carol we are looking for. We find it again with every act of love that we endeavor. Which means that if we want to truly live into the season of Christmas, we must shift our focus from a lot of the traditional Christmas rigamarole and instead keep our eyes on how we can show love with everything we do. At the end of the day, that is what Christmas is truly about.
That is the Christmas that it’s beginning to look like all around. And if you look for it, you will find.
Even Before 