Advent

 I am going through an Advent devotional this year with a unique concept: it uses the music of Handel's Messiah as the access point to experiencing the waiting for and joy of Jesus.  Wow!  

I am finding a few interesting things as I read and listen.  For one, I am not sure if I have ever heard or sung Handel's Messiah all the way through.  I have performed at least parts of it in choirs.  But the ironic thing is that I don't really like most of the music itself; I just don't find it very melodious.  If I have sung the Messiah all the way through, it is so unmelodious and sort of uninteresting to me that I don't remember it, ha!  

BUT, I have also never really paid attention to it.  "Charles Jennens crafted an abridged story of the Messiah using only Scripture.  He gave this libretto to Handel, and Handel brilliantly composed music that reanimated the words to reflect the intended emotions.  Using musical elements like vibrato and prestissimo, he makes the story of the Messiah come alive again to us and we experience something different, something necessary about God's Word--His heart."  Handel chose the text of the Messiah 100% from scripture, and wrote the music for it in only 24 days.  Wow!