Last Christmas I picked up a book by Ace Collins, author of More Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas. (oops! gotta go to the sanctuary-something's calling-not sure if it's God or not?.... Okay, I'm back! Sorry, no great revelations this time.) Yesterday, I did a Google search on Ace Collins and came up with an article from his other book, Stories Behind the Best-Loved Songs of Christmas, about the origins of the song, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".
He tells how the lively song, carefully detailing the story of the birth of Jesus, was written by peasants in reaction to the "dead" church music of the day-that day being in the 1500's. Of particular interest to me was the meaning of the line, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen". Today's attempt at describing it might be something like, God give you happy gentlemen rest. While not a bad thought, it doesn't necessarily make much sense in the context of the times, who wrote the song, and the words of the song. However, if we translate the song title back from yesteryear's meaning to today's, it's quite different.
God Rest (keep or make) Ye (you-uh, you could figure this one out right?) Merry (great or mighty), (yeah, there originally was a comma after Merry) Gentlemen.
God Make You Mighty, Gentlemen. Written by folks who were not great or mighty. Written about a story that was great and mighty. Written as a reminder that God's love makes us great and mighty in His eyes.
Maybe you'll not be able to say, Merry Christmas , without thinking twice about the different meanings of merry.
Maybe I should try saying Mighty Christmas to someone and see what they say.
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