If you know me, you know I LOVE Christmas. One of my many hobbies is listening to Christmas music all year long and never getting tired of it. Sadly, when I was younger and the song “Little Drummer Boy” would come on, I would begggggg to change the song. I thought the song was too slow, repetitive, super long, and way too many rum pum pum pums. However, it was my mother’s favorite song. No matter how much I begged, she would just turn it up and close her eyes to meditate on the song. I could never wrap my brain around why she loved it so much.
Fast forward a couple years, I finally realize that it is not just a song about a little boy playing the drums. The song starts out with the Magi inviting a little boy to come see a King. These three wise men were dressed to impress. Their cloaks were magnificently coated with jewels and gold, and this little boy was probably dressed in dirty rags. They tell him about all the fine gifts they are giving to him to show their honor and respect towards him. They bring him Gold, which is associated with kings, because Jesus is the King of all Kings. They also bring him Frankincense, which was used in the church, because it represented how people will praise His name. Lastly, they brought him Myrrh, which was a fragrance they used to put on dead bodies, to represent the persecution.
The Magi have all of these elaborate gifts and the little boy has nothing to give to Jesus. Nothing “that’s fit to give our king.” The little boy comes along with the three wise men, and when he gets there, he sees that Jesus is a “poor boy, too.” The little boy acknowledges that he does not have much, but he has a drum. Then, he offers up all that he has and plays for the King of all Kings. He beats the drum with all his heart and soul. He plays like it is his last time. The song says, “I played my best for him.” When I hear this in the song I just imagine a little boy standing up straight as tall as he can with the biggest smile on his face. So honored that he got to play for Jesus. We have to remember that the little boy was not good at drumming. He had no idea what he was doing. He was poor, so the drum he had was probably a beaten up one that he found on the street. It was probably not pleasing to the ears, but it was pleasing to Jesus’s heart. After the boy gets done drumming, the most powerful line of the song comes…..
“Then He smiled at me”
JESUS SMILED AT HIM. He did not care about the sound or that the kid did not keep a beat. He saw the boy’s heart, and how he offered Jesus everything he had.
This little boy represents us. The drum represents anything that we give back to God wholeheartedly, big or small. All Jesus ever wants from us, is for us to offer up everything… our hearts, our gifts, our passions, our insecurities, our hands and feet, every part of us to Him. In all that we do, we must do it for the Lord. We are poor, sinful, and depraved, but because of His grace, He still smiles at us. He gave us the gift of the cross, and we must give him everything in return.
What is your drum?
“Only fear the LORD and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider what great things He has done for you.”
-1 Samuel 12:24
“It shall come about, if you listen obediently to my commandments which I am commanding you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and all your soul,
–Deuteronomy 11:13
p.s. If you are looking for a good Christmas album Lauren Daigle’s is just what you need!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!🙂
