The Songs Tell the Story: A Family Advent DevotionalSample

The Song My Dad Always Messed Up on Purpose

When I was a kid, we had a Christmas decoration that consisted of four angels, each holding a red candle. The angels sat on letters that spelled out N-O-E-L. My dad would often rearrange those angels and wait until someone noticed they now spelled out L-E-O-N or E-L-N-O. Every time my family sang “The First Noel” in church, people wondered why we were grinning at each other.

“The First Noel” might be one of the oldest hymns we have. Some think the tune was written in the 1200s, but the Christmas words were added six hundred years later. The word noel comes from a Latin word that means “to be born,” but noel later came to mean Christmas. “The First Noel” means “The First Christmas.”

We know people have been celebrating the birth of Jesus since the year 300 AD. It’s almost the year 2020. That means people have been celebrating Christ’s birthday for something like seventeen hundred years!

When you sing this song, think about all the people who have sung these same words before you. Abraham Lincoln might have sung “The First Noel.” Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, sang this hymn. Your great- great-grandparents and their great-great-grandparents probably sang these same words.

Now, here is some Christmas trivia about “The First Noel.” Some of the words should probably be changed. We celebrate Christmas in December, so the hymn says, “On a cold winter’s night that was so deep.” Truthfully, Jesus was probably born sometime in the spring. The reason we know that is because the shepherds were living in the fields at night watching their sheep (Luke 2:8). They didn’t do that until spring.

But, that trivia doesn’t change the truth about Christmas. The first Christmas was announced by angels who appeared to shepherds in a field. People have been “announcing” and celebrating the story of Christ’s birth ever since.

When someone says “Happy holidays,” you can say “Merry Christmas.” When someone is excited about Santa, you can be excited about the Christmas story. When you sing “The First Noel,” you sing about the first Christmas, and your voice is joined with millions of others throughout history. People have always wanted to announce the true meaning of Christmas.

“The First Noel, the angels did say.”

What will you announce about Christmas this year?