When Jason Gray set out to make a Christmas record, he was inspired to write a group of songs that brought out the humanity of the various characters in the Christmas story. His album, Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy, explores Jesus's birth from these many different points of view.
"Christmas Is Coming" is an invitation to allow the Christmas story in, drawing us into the narrative while examining what Christmas is to us in the here and now. The album shares the story from the eyes of the different characters in a way that's relatable to what we experience ourselves, including songs from the innkeeper, who is struggling with the overwhelming busyness of life in the song, "Rest," and Joseph, wrestling with feelings of betrayal in "Forgiveness is a Miracle/Man of Mercy." In writing the songs, Gray discovered that almost all of the characters were in the midst of great turmoil in their lives. He was reminded, however, that joy is not the absence of conflict or crisis, but rather the presence of God. Closing the album with "Joy to the World," he concludes, "Through all of the drama and crisis that we experience in the story and in our own story, it's leading us to joy and on the way there, we discover Emmanuel, God With Us."
Christmas Stories: Repeat the Sounding Joy - Jason Gray
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