I always think it’s funny the way that musicals ask their viewers to suspend reality. In a musical people will break out suddenly into unrehearsed singing. Large crowds will dance in seemingly unchoreographed spontaneity. I have yet to see this happen at a board meeting or in Walmart. That just doesn’t happen in real life!
Or does it?
The first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke read like a musical. People are breaking out into spontaneous song all over the place. First Mary, then Zechariah, then a choir of Angles, and then, lastly, a man named Simeon. Did you ever think of the Christmas story as a musical? It seems that Jesus’ coming into the world has always inspired singing.
Between now and the end of the year we’ll be spending time with the lyrics recorded by Luke to the earliest Christmas songs that ever were. Thousands and thousands of Christmas songs have followed, everything from O’ Come All Ye Faithful to Jingle Bells, but these were the first. In this message we study Mary’s Song of Praise found in Luke 1:46-55.