Day 6: The Power of Death Undone

Nine years ago.  Nine.  My world changed. 

An unsuspecting friend invited me to a concert that would change the way I saw everything in the Bible.  And if you’ve ever heard my story, it changed my life forever.   

This concert takes place during the Christmas season each year, and for the past eight years.  Eight.  I’ve attended in some way.  In person is preferable, but last year I was desperate and watched it via livestream. Tomorrow, I will see it for the ninth time in person.  GLORY!  I look forward to it every single year. 

It is important for you to know that while this concert takes place during Christmas, it is not a Christmas concert in the traditional sense.  It is a bunch of ridiculously talented and humble singer songwriters who join together each year to sing the Behold the Lamb of God album from start to finish. 

Andrew Peterson starts the concert each year by reading the section I posted yesterday from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. The musicians then proceed to transform seemingly ordinary Bible stories…

stories that I’ve heard a million times…
stories that I heard as a child and read an adult…
and weaves them into a seamless story about the coming of Christ.

It’s amazing.  It’s beautiful, and it’s true!

Having the Bible explained in that way was like God taking me up in a hot air balloon and slowly adjusting my eyes so they began to focus on a beautiful painting.  A painting filled with magnificent hues that highlighted each stroke pointing to Jesus – a painting that took 55 generations and 2,000 years to complete.  A painting that tells one story across 66 books and over 31,000 verses. It’s the most beautiful painting I’ve ever seen.  I fell in love with God that day.

For me, every year Christmas begins when I hear the familiar beat of the opening drums, and Andrew Peterson’s melodic voice singing…

Gather ’round ye children come
Listen to the old, old story
Of the power of death undone
By an infant born of glory
Son of God
Son of Man…

Excerpts from this post first appeared in (Re)thinking Christmas:  Music.