I used to play the French horn. I was an “okay”  player, but I was no soloist. One year, for Christmas, my mom (the choir director) received permission from our bishop to have me play the French horn during the ward Christmas program (I wish she had gotten my permission first). I was to play “O Holy Night” with the ward choir and there was a part in the middle with a horn solo. Like I said, I was no soloist, but I practiced and practiced. I had the part down.

On the morning of the program I got up early to run through the part one last time, but something was wrong—terribly wrong. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the notes to come out right. My mom heard my struggles and asked what the problem was. She thought I was just fooling around and trying to cause her heartache.

“Play it right, ” she said.

I couldn’t. It really was muffled and flat. The notes were not even in the same key as before. Something was wrong with the horn. I was finally able to convince her that there was a serious problem. 

She panicked and called a musical genius in our congregation. In a matter of minutes, he had listened to me play and transposed the horn part into a different key so it would match the piano and the choir.

I practiced the new notes, but only had a short period of time to learn the new key. When the time came for “O Holy Night” and my solo in the program, it was a disaster. Utter disaster. Needless to say, I was embarrassed…

And there was never a horn solo in sacrament meeting again.

Wanting to clear my good name, I insisted that my mom take the horn to the music shop and have them look at it. Sure enough they found a problem—a 2-inch Lincoln Log had been jammed down into the narrow part of the horn’s bell. The culprit? My 4-yr-old brother sometime the day before the program. 

Despite all of this, “O Holy Night” is one of my favorite Christmas carols. Its message, and that of other Christmas hymns, is powerful.

Life is hard and it is full of many hard times and many hard things. Even some of the smallest things can have a big impact on us if we don’t address them. We all have the so-to-speak  “Lincoln Logs” in our lives; these can block our peace, well-being, contentment, and progress. They can have a large impact on us leading to dark times and long nights.

But the message of this carol is one of lasting hope.

No problem—no matter how big or small, no matter how public or private—puts us out of the reach of His love.

No problem—no matter how big or small, no matter how public or private—is beyond His ability to bring peace.

Whatever oppresses us will one day cease.

There is always hope through the King of Kings. This is the true meaning of Christmas.

^{Lead photo by Kazuo ota on Unsplash}

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