Amy Grant – Another Merry Christmas?

For me, trusting that the story He’s telling is so much bigger than the one my small mind is able to tell, that’s what makes me so energized to share this message across cultural lines, across religious lines—to share, “This is good news.”

CCM: We are experiencing so many cultural tensions right now. Different faiths. Different lifestyles. Different political perspectives. Everyone is taking sides. Why do you think Christmas is such a motivator in helping us get back to each other? Back to love?
AG: What an amazing thing that all of this energy has been created around the celebration of the birth of Jesus. For economic reasons, for cultural reasons, for goodwill reasons, everybody is pulled in. In my mind, [Christmas] is the greatest ball of energy because it is all a trickle down from, “God so loved the world that He gave His son.” It’s the one time of the year when you can actually imagine the person that has never walked into a church, never been a part of a choir, raising a chilled beer mug and singing at the corner pub, “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Come and behold Him, Born the King of angels / O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord … (from “O Come All Ye Faithful”)

Because of commercialism, I know there’s an outcry of “Jesus is the reason for the season,” and I go, “Well yeah. Duh.” But if my grandmother were a picture of God, and I wanted somebody to know her love, the first thing I would do—because most people don’t want to hang out with a wrinkly old woman who’s talking about something they’re not interested in—I would start describing the smell of her yeast rolls. Then I’d talk about their shape, how when she lays them over it looks like a smile. And I’d say, “I’m going to bring you some leftover rolls from our dinner.” Someday, if that friend stepped into my grandmother’s house, they would say, “Oh my gosh. The smell. What I imagined didn’t even come close.” All of these things to eventually introduce my friend to my grandmother. The rolls are just a part of it. It’s really about her. The rolls are just an expression of her painstaking love for what she wants to feed the family.

In my mind, all the hoopla of Christmas is the burning bush. It gets people curious. Where does this come from? How come the entire cynical world wants to smile and show each other love? It’s crazy. That’s why if somebody says, “This isn’t talking about Jesus,” I say, “Hey, hey, hey. Prepare ye the way of the Lord starts way, way out there with the smell of bread rising.”

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