I love Christmas carols. In fact, some of my favorite memories as a child include piling up into my uncle’s truck with all of my cousins singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs.
Admittedly, I haven’t really listened to them a lot this Christmas season.
However, there is one that has me thinking on it more and more and ironically enough it is one of my least favorites. I mean really, how many times do you need to sing, “Pa rum pum pum pum”?
Obviously in the carol, The Little Drummer Boy you need to sing it every other phrase.
Sadly, the excessive pa rum pum pum’s kept me from really understanding the story behind the song until recently. As long as it may have taken I don’t think I’ll forget it’s lesson any time soon.
Come they told me,
A new-born King to see,
Our finest gifts we bring,
To lay before the King,
So to honor Him,
When we come.
Little Baby,
I am a poor boy too,
I have no gift to bring,
That’s fit to give the King,
Shall I play for you,
On my drum?
Mary nodded,
The ox and lamb kept time,
I played my drum for Him,
I played my best for Him,
Then He smiled at me,
Me and my drum.
While there are some obvious sound effects missing, I wanted to strip them away so as not to miss the story.
A little boy hears of the Savior’s birth and is encouraged to come see Him. Because He is the King, it would be inappropriate to see Him without bringing a fine gift…but this little boy is poor.
It is easy enough to relate to the boy on a surface level. I come to Jesus everyday poor and needy, able to give Him nothing that is worthy of who He is and all He has done.
Imagine actually being able to see Him and having to tell Him that. Adds another level of ache to it, doesn’t it?
But then the little boy remembers…he could play for him. While not as expensive as gold, frankincense, or myrrh, he did have his talent to offer the baby King.
And so he played. He played better than he had ever played.
And the King smiled.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading lately and one of my favorite new authors is Charles Martin. He has this unique way of making his readers feel smarter than we really are. He doesn’t explain everything to us and he really makes us work for some of the smaller symbolisms he uses. There is no formula to a Charles Martin book.
I love it!
In his novel The Dead Don’t Dance, Martin’s protagonist had just gotten home from a concert with his wife and he was marveling and wondering, imagining and dreaming of how he would feel to be the one on stage with the talent to illicit the kind of praise they had witnessed at the concert. The way Martin parallels this with the story of the little drummer boy is simply beautiful and instead of trying to recreate it in my own words I’m going to let his creative genius speak for itself.
“When I see those people on stage, sometimes I think about the little drummer boy. Standing there, offering his gift. All he had. Right there at the foot of the King. I wonder what that moment was like. Was it quiet all except for the sound of a drum? Were the animals shuffling about? Chewing hay? Where was Joseph? Was Jesus sleeping, up ‘til He smiled? And the smile. What did he feel? I…I wish I could wring out my soul, like the drummer boy, and then stop midwring and know, in that minute, that that – whatever that was – was the perfect expression of a gift.”
I pointed out the window toward the amphitheatre. “Those people, when they stand before the world, just before the sound fades, they know that they’re doing the very thing they were created to do. Their faces show it. Gift affirmed. They know life. That’s it. That moment, when the fans come alive and the King smiles, is living. Sometimes, I just wonder what it’d be like to play my drum for the King. Did the drummer boy stand like Pavarotti, hang the notes off the balcony, stop midbeat and listen to himself? Did he notice the moment, or did it pass by unmarked?”
“Did he notice the moment, or did it pass by unmarked?” Did he notice the moment he played for the King of Kings or did he just pass it off as another performance?
Do we notice the moments when we operate in our talents and gifts for the advancement of the King’s Kingdom or do we just pass it off as another time we have served?
I don’t know about you but I never want to pass by those moments unmarked again.
This past Sunday was one of those moments for me.
I was helping to lead worship at MyChurch Columbus when in the middle of one of the songs we lost power. No microphones, no production lights, no instruments, besides the acoustic guitar and drums. Just voices.
It was a little nerve wracking for about five seconds and then I was back in the moment. Then I remembered that the next song up was the one I was leading…
With an acoustic guitar and me singing louder than I knew I was capable of we led MyChurch in singing Hosanna…
It was awesome. Voices, just voices singing about how God saves and will save, that day the King of Glory comes on the clouds with fire.
The cool part is that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t let that moment go by unmarked. No one saw what happened as a technical difficulty but a divine moment where we had the opportunity to strip all of the fluff away, to wring ourselves out and offer the purest expression of a gift.
It was our, “Happy Birthday, Lord.”
I wring myself out in other ways as well.
This blog for instance. I have wrung myself out on this thing.
There have been times when I have stopped mid-wring and have known that this, whatever this is, is my perfect expression of my gift. Then there have been other times when I haven’t been so sure. Regardless, I have wrung out my soul within these pages and oh, how I pray, that as I am spent, it will elicit a smile from His terrifyingly perfect face. That God will look at His daughter and say that this is the perfect expression of His gift in me.
Am I hoping that you have enjoy taking this journey with me? Absolutely.
But if, at the end of this crazy journey, my King isn’t pleased with me because of it, then it is all for nothing. Because while others, Mary, Joseph, possibly the Inn Keeper, and the animals benefited from the Little Drummer Boy’s song, he wasn’t there for any of them.
He was there for Jesus. His song was for Jesus. His life, in that moment in time, was only for Jesus.
Can others benefit from whatever talent I have? Can someone relate to my story and allow God to change their heart?
I sincerely hope so but through this journey my heart has been changed.
I do not exist for that hope any longer. I do not write for that hope any longer.
I am here for Jesus. My song is for Jesus. My life, in this moment and the moments that make up my eternity are only for Jesus.
Difficultly Glorious 