December 22

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

by Gene Curtis

Lyrics:  https://www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/84

Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-njGd2u82g                         

I have always loved this song.  I love the scene in Luke 2 in which the angels appear and make the announcement to the shepherds.  It is so exciting and joyful!  “God and sinners reconciled” … “Born that man no more may die!”

I have never really thought about the first word, though.  “Hark”—Listen, pay attention, look here … the angels are singing!  Don’t miss their message!  That makes me think about our Christmas last year, the Curtis family Christmas, 2023.  Everybody was home—all the kids and their kids, 14 of us (all except for our youngest son, Matthew, who was training in the Air Force)—a full house on Christmas morning!  We got up in the dark to the glow of the lighted tree, and to stockings stuffed with goodies.  But then, after opening the stockings … Nancy (my wife), and I began to feel funny, and before we could even begin to open the presents from under the tree, we were flat in bed with the stomach flu (when we weren’t in the bathroom over the toilet!)!  The day went by in a fog, and when I think about it now, it is as if it didn’t happen, as if there was no Christmas Day!

It makes me a little sad to have missed Christmas last year.  It makes me even more excited to pay attention this year, to seize each moment, to read, reflect, sing, … to “Hark” to the sound of the angels’ voices announcing the best news the world has ever heard.  I will not miss Christmas again!