Advent Devotion - Week Two

Our younger grandson, 14 months old, is just learning to talk. He's figured out "mama," and surprised his parents last week when, while watching his 3-year-old brother circle the house pretending to be a train, he came up with a second "word" -- "choo-choo." Then, a couple of days ago, as he overheard a Christmas program on television, he added to his verbal repertoire "Ho-Ho-Ho."

Well, I've added a similar-sounding word to my vocabulary this week - "Hodie" (Ho-dee-ay). It's the title of the cantata that the Chancel Choir is sharing in worship this Sunday, and it has a significant meaning. It is Latin for "This Day."

All the beautiful music and carefully chosen scripture, prayers and poems that are included in the cantata lead us to hear again the true and simple words of angels to ordinary shepherds - "This day, a Savior is born to you - Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11)

This day. And even centuries later, in ways that surprise and change us, we can experience the gift of recognizing that indeed, Christ is born anew in us and for us, this day.

As people have listened to the music of Ralph Vaughn Williams' "Hodie," they have commented that the jubilation it conveys would seem to have come from the mind and heart of a young person, not an 82-year old man. But it was as an older man that Vaughn Williams created this Cantata. He knew how to hear and share the joy of Christ being born "This Day." May we, too, throughout this Advent and Christmas Season.

While my grandson practices his "choo-choo" and his "ho-ho-ho," you may hear me practicing "Hodie, Hodie" - for I want to remember its' meaning this Advent.