I am ready for Christmas—or at least as ready as I ever get. I have done most of my shopping, the lights are up on the house (thanks to a crew that knows what they are doing), and Kathy already has two Christmas trees standing tall, with the possibility of a third. We may get a bit carried away, but that is part of the fun. Our grandkids are coming, the dinner plans are in motion, and Christmas music fills the house like cinnamon in the air. Kathy keeps the classics playing almost nonstop—“Joy to the World,” “Silent Night,” and “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” It all brings back childhood memories of singing carols at church and hearing my mother’s old vinyl records spinning in the background. I love this time of year because the air itself seems to hum with music. Yet, amid all the melodies and merry chaos, I am still trying to focus on the true meaning of Christmas—something I attempt every year with varying degrees of success.
Speaking of carols, one of my grandsons wondered why we sing about “No L” at Christmas. I had to laugh, but it made me think. Every year, people seem to sing about “No ‘L’.” I thought, “Why in the world are we celebrating a missing letter?” Imagine a Christmas without the letter “L.” We could not talk about Jesus bringing eterna_ _ife into the wor_d. The ange_s could not sing, the shepherds could not watch their f_ocks, and John 3:16 would say, “For God so _oved the wor_d that He gave…” How can we share God’s _ove without the “L?” And what would Christmas be without _aughter? Without that letter, the conversation around the dinner tab_e would sound pretty odd, and our chi_dren would not know the joy of opening their presents! Christmas would lose its meaning, its music, and its heart. Fortunately, the song is not about missing letters—it is “Noel,” not “No ‘L’.”
The word “Noel” means “Christmas,” from the old French word naël, meaning “day of birth.” How fitting! Christmas is all about a birth—the birth of Jesus, the Light and Love of the world. The angels declared, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:11). The “L” we thought we lost is found perfectly in Him—Light, Life, and Love all in one. As John wrote, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). So, Merry Noel—and may your Christmas be full of love, laughter, and just the right number of L’s!