a few years ago, i co-directed a christmas play with one of the choir-mom's at church. i handled the music, she handled the drama. i love this woman, she's terribly sweet, and her youngest daughter was one of the sweetest most well-behaved and dedicated students in the choir group.

as we wrote the production together, she really wanted to include the song "the little drummer boy" and i gently refused. as a bible student, i have this thing about biblical accuracy, and this song was not biblically accurate. since we strive for biblical accuracy in our church, i felt it would be inappropriate to include this song. i've maintained this position for years.

saturday, i was driving to the holiday open house and this song came on the christian radio station {they start early with the christmas music around here}. i went to change the channel, but decided against it. after all, it was being performed by jars of clay, one of my favorite groups. surely i could tolerate 3 minutes.

i knew the words. i knew the message, and yet, this one time listening through it, i was brought to tears. the words suddenly had new meaning to me. i want to share with you a few of the lyrics that particularly touched me, and you can read the rest here if you wish.

Little Baby (pa rum pum pum pum)
I am a poor boy too (pa rum pum pum pum)
I have no gift to bring (pa rum pum pum pum)
That's fit to give the King (pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum)

Shall I play for you (pa rum pum pum pum)
On my drum?

Mary nodded (pa rum pum pum pum)
The ox and lamb kept time (pa rum pum pum pum)
I played my drum for Him (pa rum pum pum pum)
I played my best for Him (pa rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum, rum pum pum pum)...

suddenly, the message of the song was not about portraying the facts of what happened on that night, because let's face it - we don't have a whole ton of facts.

it's about something completely different. if you consider that Jesus told us all to be like children, then this song is especially powerful, because while wise men were bringing gold, incense and myrrh, this child, so humbly, recognized that he had nothing at all that was a worthy gift for such a King. so instead, he blessed the Baby with the gifts with which he himself had been blessed.

so i'm looking forward to finding a way this season to honor the humility of our little drummer boy, to honor our King with my gifts. maybe he wasn't really there to play for the Baby Christ, but the message of the song shows that his heart sure was in the right place.