I Played My Best for Him

Via Pixabay (2013), CC0 Public Domain

I love Christmas carols–always have. If you ask me to choose my top 3, it’s an easy choice: “O Holy Night,” “Silent Night,” and “The Little Drummer Boy.”

That last one is not a sweepingly-glorious hymn with soaring vocals and complex instrumentation. It hardly fits into the category of “traditional Christmas carols,” but I can’t help it. That song makes me cry every time–always has. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to sing the line, “I played my best for him” without choking up.

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The Little Drummer Boy gets it right. He brings his gift–not something that can be opened, but his talent, small though it was–and he gives his best effort to honor the newborn King. As a musician, it’s what I try to do, Sunday after Sunday. And I love that after the Little Drummer Boy offers his humble gift, Baby Jesus smiles at him.

What do we bring to honor our newborn King?

Do we play our best for him, knowing that our offering is humble and small and, yes, flawed?

This Christmas season, I pray that we will let the Little Drummer Boy show us the way to Jesus.