it's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas

I'm not one of those people who begins counting down to Christmas in October and rushes through Thanksgiving, but I must say I'm a big fan of the Christmas season. Maybe it's because Christmas, being sandwiched between my birthday at the beginning of the month and New Year's at the end, represents an entire month of festivities. Or maybe it's because I have an attachment to present wrapping and family gatherings (and, may I add, pie eating). It's certainly not anything related to snow since I didn't see any until I was 17.

I think it has something to do with the music. Music has a way of getting in to you, of bringing back wonderful memories and fond traditions. And I guess, for me, it's always the sign that Christmas time is here. So this year, right after Thanksgiving, we whipped out the holiday tunes and belted out our favorites, and I've listened to it more than anything else since then.

But what I've come to appreciate more and more about Christmas music - and here I mean the classics, not songs like "Mr. Grinch" - is not just the memories of the past it brings but the looking toward the future that it encourages. Advent, a season of the liturgical church calendar, is this time of year; and contrary to the little I knew growing up, it represents more than just lighting a candle on Sundays. Since Christmas is about remembering the birth of Jesus Christ, Advent is about remembering that He's coming back one day - it's a season of longing for our Messiah to return. And the music we sing is resonant of that. From "Joy to the World" to "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" we're reminded of both comings of Christ: we celebrate the one and anticipate the other. In a world where we look around us and see so much wrong, Christmas music reminds us that this isn't the end of the story. There's hope! There's a Savior who came and who's returning.

So, in this season of Christmas that's full of lists of things to buy and people to see (and, for this college student, a list of papers and finals), let's keep the Christmas songs playing and let the message of hope they carry fill our hearts.