My all-time favorite classic Christmas song has got to be the Little
Drummer Boy. If I’m listening to this
song and start to think too much about it, I start to well up with tears. Every time.
My sons occasionally ask me why this is my favorite Christmas
song.
“It’s stupid and it doesn’t make
sense,” they say.
I answer like this: “This song is about a little boy who’s poor. And he wants to bring Jesus a gift. But he doesn’t have anything to give
him. And so he gives the baby Jesus the
only gift he has to give – a song. And
this poor boy is drumming his little heart out for the Lord, because that’s all he
has to give. But it’s enough. And the baby Jesus smiles.”
Usually, I am trying to hold back tears as I share this with my
sons. But they simply reply that it's still stupid, before running off to play.
But that’s okay.
I don’t expect them to get it yet.
And in some ways, I almost hope they don’t ever have to “get it.”
Because I think truly understanding the beautiful heart of the little
drummer boy can only come through pain, heartache, and loss. It comes when we’ve been knocked down so
badly that we can barely get up. It
comes when we lose all confidence in ourselves, in our ability to make life what we want it to be, to keep all the balls up in the air, to fix the things
that are broken. It comes when we truly
learn that we are poor and broken and have nothing to offer God.
Nothing except ourselves. Our hearts. Our trust.
These are the gifts that make Jesus smile. When we come to Him as we are – poor, broken,
vulnerable, weak, humble. When we come
to Him with all that is in us – the heartache, the questions, the fears, the
imperfections, the neediness, the lack of fill in the blank.
This is all He asks of us. All
He really wants from us.
He just wants …
us. As we are. Poor, broken, needy, helpless, and weak.
And that's okay with Him. That's exactly how He wants us to come to Him. That's exactly what He wants us to give Him. The broken pieces. The unpolished, raw, messy parts of ourselves.
We don't have to be ashamed of who we are. That we have nothing to give Him. We just need to come to Him as we are and give Him our selves, our hearts, trusting Him to love us and accept us and forgive us and heal us and help us grow in Him. Trusting Him to take the "nothing" that we have - the ugly, broken pieces that we hold onto - and to turn them into something beautiful.
I am the Little Drummer Boy, with
nothing to offer Jesus but my heart, my praise, my passionate devotion. And even if the only song I have, the only
drumming I do, is the sound of my tears hitting the pillow, my knees hitting
the floor, and my heart beating close to His … that’s good enough. And Jesus smiles.
And so, here is the first of 4 great versions of The Little Drummer
Boy. Because they all deserve to be
listened to. (I think my boys wouldn’t
find this song so stupid if they heard this version of it.)
Little Drummer Boy by For King and Country
"Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)
"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.... He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." (Psalm 34:18, 147:2)
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:3)
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16)
