I was a teenager when ‘The Surprise’ was published 40 years ago. It soon became a favourite in my corps in Harare, Zimbabwe. I wish this was a better-known carol. We sing traditional, favourite carols many times every year.
They can become familiar and numb us to the radical reality of that first Christmas in Bethlehem. ‘The Surprise’ packs a powerful punch and challenges Christmas staleness and sentimentality.
Christmas should be a celebration of the most surprising event in human history. The events that occurred when Jesus was born were utterly mind blowing. The song starts by encouraging us to ‘think of the animals’ disturbed by a baby’s crying.
It wasn’t just the cows and sheep who were surprised. Mary, Joseph, shepherds and kings were having to process many incredible, disorientating events.
Angels were singing, there was a bright star in the sky while Mary and Joseph must have wondered what this little bundle – born of a virgin – was going to look like. The creator of all things had entered our world. What a surprising sight.
Every December, Major Joy Webb’s beautiful tune comes into my mind when I’m walking through busy shopping centres, watching TV or on social media. I find myself singing the last line of the chorus when confronted by the craziness of Christmas: ‘Let the surprise catch your heart once more, making the old story new’.
We’re bombarded with messages about Christmas that have little to do with the birth of a baby thousands of years ago in Bethlehem. It is easy to become numb to the remarkable events of that first Christmas and, even Christians, get sucked into the schmaltz and secularism of the ‘happy holidays’.
As we look back with the benefit of hindsight, we should be even more surprised than those first eye-witnesses to the birth of Jesus. We now know this baby grew into a man who was full of ‘grace and truth’ (John 1:14). He was crucified, died, and rose again and can live in each of us today (Galatians 2:20).
We know that through Jesus Christ all things were created and for him and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:15–20). What a surprise!
The familiarity of the Christmas story can dull our sense of wonder. Every Advent, let the surprise catch your heart once more, making the old story new.
