The Little Drummer Boy

Greetings from the Garden State! I arrived in New Jersey this evening to begin my 4 days with Jean, Josh, and their precious new little girl. Elizabeth is absolutely beautiful, and it has been a long time since I’ve held a new born (she’ll be 2 weeks old on Monday!) and I forgot how unbelievably tiny they are! She has her doctor’s appointment tomorrow to get weighed again, but she can’t be more than 9 pounds. I’ll post pictures when I get home on Thursday 🙂

Last night I went with my parents and a family from church to the Go Fish concert downtown, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I know some of their music, but was definitely NOT expecting an amazing show. It’s three men who do primarily acapella songs, and within the past few years their music has taken on a new focus. Their new mission in life is to create quality music for kids that will teach positive messages without driving adults absolutely crazy. Trust me, as a former nanny of 3 year olds, this is an incredibly wonderful mission! And, I have to say, they have done a wonderful job. Their show was mostly a Christmas show, with classics like Joy to the World, Silent Night, and what is probably the most beautiful version of Mary Did you Know that I have ever heard in my life. But at the end of the first half, they did three of their non-Christmas songs for kids–I never knew a song called “The Ten Commandment Boogie” could be as entertaining as it was! (Ok, I’ll be honest, there were three attractive men jumping around stage and singing their hearts out to get kids excited about learning the 10 Commandments…I am sure that added to me deciding the song was wonderful!)

The real reason that I’m babbling about this though is that they ended the show with their encore–and their encore happened to be my very favorite Christmas song ever written….The Little Drummer Boy. I think I fell in love with the song when I was about 3, I can remember my dad singing it to me to try to get me to sleep, and since then I have always cherished this piece of music, it just makes me excited when I hear the opening lines. So as they were singing it last night, I started really listening to the lyrics. I think I discovered another reason I love the song. They are so applicable to each one of us. When it comes to coming before our King, each one of us is a poor child, no matter how much money one may have in their bank account. We come with no gifts that are fit for a King, and as I listened to the song last night I could almost feel the anguish of this little boy. What do you bring as an offering to the Messiah?? Especially when others have brought such expensive gifts? So, this little boy does the only thing he knows how to do, he asks if he should play his drum for the baby. And the baby smiles at him. Ok, you are probably all thinking that I am now spending way too much time analyzing a kid’s Christmas song, but stay with me here….how often do we think about Jesus smiling at us? If you’re like me, you spend an awful lot of time thinking about the ways we’ve messed up. We beat ourselves up for not spending time in prayer today, or not helping that person who needed help, or gossiping about someone…or a million other things we shamefully hide from the world. But how often do we really think about coming before the Savior of this world and having him smile at us? I think that is one of the most incredible images I can come up with. Anyone who has ever worked with kids or had kids understands this. As a child comes up to you with a piece of paper covered with unintelligible scribbles or that picture frame made out of popcicle sticks and proudly yet shyly presents them as an offering of how much they love you, they wait in expectation for your response. When that smile, hug, and exclamations of how beautiful the gift is are expressed, the shyness disappears and the smile of self-confidence spreads over that little face. Jesus doesn’t need our offerings of songs, prayers, our time, etc, yet when we, His children, come shyly before him with whatever we have to offer: a song crafted on the guitar He gave us the ability to play, a poem written with the gift of words He instilled in us, or even a beat on a drum, He smiles upon us.

May we all begin to catch a glimpse of just how much this Savior of ours absolutely adores us, and may each of us begin to create room in our mental images of the nativity scene for a little drummer boy or girl, a child who comes to the King with the most precious gift of all–himself.