Dear Friends,
“Don’t use ‘The Little Drummer Boy!’ I hate that song,” snarled a legal colleague one day as she overheard me planning the music for a Christmas program. I was surprised at her vehemence.
“It makes no sense to me. Who is this kid playing the drum and what does this have to do with Jesus?”
Her objection was gratuitous and not well-taken since I had no intention of using the song, but her negative reaction was remarkable.
I have since learned that there are a lot of people who vilify the song. There is even a contest on line, the object of which is to display one’s Christmas music avoidance skills by going through the whole Christmas season without hearing a version of “Little Drummer Boy” one time.
I don’t think the song deserves this abuse. There are lots of sappy, gimmicky Christmas songs, though most of these are in the secular realm.
“The Little Drummer Boy” was written by the modern classical music composer and teacher Katherine Kennicott Davis. She originally called it the “Carol of the Drum” and claimed it was based on a Czechoslovakian folk carol, though the claim has never been substantiated. It was first recorded by the Trapp Family Singers in 1955 followed by a host of popular singers and groups.
The lyrics describe a drummer boy invited by the Magi to accompany them when they visit the baby Jesus to pay him homage and offer him their gifts of gold and rare spices.
The drummer boy is poor and has no gift to offer the infant King. But he identifies with the humble circumstances of Jesus birth in a stable. “I am a poor boy too, pa rum pum pum pum.” All the drummer boy can do is play his drum as best he can for Jesus.
With Mary’s nodded permission, the boy plays his drum. Jesus likes the sound and smiles at the boy in response.
The song is a parable of grace. It is reminiscent of Jesus’ observation about the poor widow who gave her last two copper coins to the Temple treasury to support God’s work in contrast to the much larger gifts of the wealthy. Jesus’ noted that her gift was proportionately the largest because it was all she had to live on. (Luke 21:1-4).
Jesus doesn’t want a lot from us. He wants everything. The drummer boy only possesses his ability and identity as a drummer. He says, “I played my best for him.” The boy gives Jesus everything and Jesus smiles at him with pleasure.
Drummers are often outcasts. At the beginning, they are banished to the garage to practice. Often misunderstood and underestimated by musical snobs, drummers are viewed with suspicion by parents of prospective dates, and hounded from worship services by reactionary traditionalists who resent anything with a beat regardless of the talent, the skill, and worshipful spirit.
I have spoken for a lot of young adult camp meetings and retreats and have spoken with many talented drummers, guitarists, saxophonists and keyboard players who were banned from their home churches and attacked as “tools of Satan” for playing contemporary Christian music.
An aside here – the issue to me is not the drums, the guitars or the sound system. It is whether the music is prepared with excellence and delivered in a spirit of praise and worship to God alone, rather than as an audience entertainment. These young musicians have the right spirit, but the harsh and personal judgments they receive are cruel and unwarranted and not delivered with the Spirit of Christ.
The little drummer boy offers hope to those made to feel small and cheap, because they have little to nothing to put in the offering plate or to pledge in the fundraising campaign, or because their God-given talents do not match the prevailing human conventions. He offers solace and encouragement to those of us made to feel unworthy of God and the fellowship of believers because of our material or spiritual poverty.
God does not demand the ornate, the lavish, the complex or the erudite from us. Men, women, girls and boys can receive the warmth of the smile of God when they whole-heartedly offer themselves to God, even when their talents and their circumstances do not conform to tradition or human esteem.
God seeks our attitude, not our assets. Ever and always, “God loves a cheerful giver” ( 2 Cor 9:7).
“O taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy are those who take refuge in him” (Ps. 34:8).
Under the mercy of Christ,
Kent
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Please note that the content and viewpoints of Mr. Hansen are his own and are not necessarily those of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. We have not edited his writing in any substantial way and have permission from him to post his content.
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Kent Hansen is a Christian attorney, author and speaker. He practices corporate law and is the managing attorney of the firm of Clayson, Mann, Yaeger & Hansen in Corona, California. Kent also serves as the general counsel of Loma Linda University and Medical Center in Loma Linda, California.
Finding God’s grace revealed in the ordinary experiences of life, spiritual renewal in Christ and prayer are Kent’s passions. He has written two books, Grace at 30,000 Feet and Other Unexpected Places published by Review & Herald in 2002 and Cleansing Fire, Healing Streams: Experiencing God’s Love Through Prayer, published by Pacific Press in spring 2007. Many of his stories and essays about God’s encompassing love have been published in magazines and journals. Kent is often found on the hiking trails of the southern California mountains, following major league baseball, playing the piano or writing his weekly email devotional, “A Word of Grace for Your Monday” that is read by men and women from Alaska to Zimbabwe.