In the Lonely Midnight

Although the “Christmas story” is a cherished and age-old tale, and central to understanding Christianity, I’m not particularly interested in writing holiday music which invokes the story’s well-known images in a naive fashion.  A lot of Christmas music makes reference to a sky full of angels and a baby in a manger, tacks on a couple of “Gloria in Excelsis Deos”, and calls it a night.  (Yawn…)

But Theodore Chickering Williams’ beautifully crafted lyric is really about loss, despair, love and hope.  I am especially moved by the line “Though in David’s city angels sing no more, love makes angel music on Earth’s darkest shore.”  It makes me think about places in the world which are plagued by war, poverty and habitual violence – and yet even in the midst of all that, we can be agents of love, becoming angels in today’s world.  Williams’ message transcends all Christmas clichés, allowing it to be powerful not only for Christians, but for people of all faiths.