Hush the Noise – Hear the Love Song

Dare I ask – how’s the Christmas shopping going? Maybe you’ve got it all sorted or at least in progress. Or perhaps, like me, you’re inclined to keep putting it off. Do you love the buzz and sparkle of the shops at Christmas? I quite like it – for the first half an hour. Very soon the sound of the same Christmas songs in every shop starts to irritate; the full-on, attention-grabbing decorations and special seasonal displays just start to blur. Even staying at home to shop online, the options and ads can be overwhelming.
At the time of writing, the Presidential election in the USA has recently ended. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have spent many weeks running around the country trying to get themselves heard, either with popstars and celebrities or with outrageous, attention-getting rhetoric. With all the noise I’m left wondering how many of the electorate heard anything of real substance.
But all this noise is trivial, compared to the sounds of war that have been the soundtrack of so many people’s lives this year.
A popular old Christmas Carol, ‘It came upon a midnight clear’, by Edmund Sears, encourages us to ‘hush the noise’, so that we might hear the love song of the Christmas angels…

And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing

What are the ways in which you might be able to hush the noise as we approach Christmas? What are the sounds and voices that you would like to hear above the noise? The angels of the first Christmas sang of their love for God and of God’s love for the world – expressed in the coming of Jesus (Wonderful Counsellor, Prince of Peace).
Have a peaceful Christmas!