Why do we always tell each other to have a Merry Christmas? Oh, occasionally someone will tell me to have a blessed Christmas, but mostly it’s merry. I looked it up. Merry means jolly, gleeful, and festive. In England, it denotes being slightly drunk, as in, “You seem a bit merry, Old Chap.”
The opposite of merry is solemn, and all this thinking about merry has led me to take a solemn consideration of the first Christmas. Was it merry? Franz Gruber said it was silent, which it might have been until the multitude of the heavenly host showed up and started praising. Does that mean life out on the field suddenly became merry? Apparently not. Luke 2:18 tells us that “all who heard it wondered.”
And what about the baby’s parents? Was Mary merry? Luke 2:19 tells us that she “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Later, at the circumcision, “His father and his mother marveled.” (Luke 2:31) Then, in verse 35, a prophet named Simeon told the parents, “And a sword will pierce through your own soul also,” which hardly sounds merry to me.
And so, today, I will not wish you a Merry Christmas. Instead, I wish you a season of wonder, ponder, and marvel.