Why We Sing Noel

The first Noel sung by angelic multitudes was offered to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay.

But why Noel? What is a Noel anyway?

The English word Noel that we sing in the famous Christmas song is taken from the French word for the Christmas season. While we are wishing one another Merry Christmas, the French say Joyeux Noël. Our word helps us to focus on Christ as the center of the holiday, but the French Noël harkens back to the Latin word natalis, that is, of birth.  The season of birth.

The angels are singing of the first Christmas. A Joyeux Noël. A joyful birth.

A birth that is first in primacy. A birth that would bring forth new life. A birth meant to end all death.

Noel.

This birth was not just a lovely carol. It was real and bloody and dangerous, as all births are. This was a profoundly human entrance of God into His creation.

Young Mary experienced morning sickness, those first flutters of movement, maybe some false labor. Then real labor. Contractions that make you wonder if death is knocking. Pain that calls into question your ability to do the good work needed.

But Mary knows something no mother in her day could know. While others rightly feared death in childbearing—death that was as common an outcome as life—Mary clings to the strange promise given to her by an angel only 9 months prior:

“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:32-33).

Noel.

Mary knows what this means. She knows the prophecy and is confident in its fulfillment. The baby descends. His head crowns. She wonders if she must give herself to give him life. Will she have the honor to see the promised one rise to power?

Noel.

The antechamber of their relative’s home sharpens into focus. The family livestock, brought inside the home to shelter for the night, shuffle in a nearby corner. A cousin supports Mary as she squats. Push. He’s almost here.

Noel.

An aunt, a niece flurry back and forth with water, rags. Joseph peers around a support beam. Can this really be happening? A final groan from the virgin teen blends into the most perfect infant cry. He’s here.

Noel.

Oh blessed one, finally here. Wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger.

Noel.

The flesh and blood reality of Jesus birth matters because this first Noel is more than a nice sentiment. God made flesh rends the world in two. He comes to make all the wrong things right again. He lays his glory by that man no more may die. He is born to give us second birth.

Noel.

I needed to meditate on birth today. Like Christmas morning, birth doesn’t always go the way you had planned. Sometimes it’s earlier than you wanted, and they tear into gifts before you have a chance to splash water on eyes not ready for the light. Sometimes the perfect meal you planned goes sideways or the big surprise gift is a bit of a dud.

But also like birth, no matter how bumpy the process, the outcome is what really matters. It’s the babe you gaze upon that makes it all worthwhile.

Noel.

Son of God and Son of man
There before the world began
Born to suffer, born to save
Born to raise us from the grave
Christ the everlasting Lord
He shall reign forevermore

Noel, Noel
Come and see what God has done
Noel, Noel
The story of amazing love!
The light of the world, given for us
Noel

—Chris Tomlin