Never expect the normal standard from the talented Jason Gray, as his first Christmas project presents a deeper story celebrating the birth of Christ. Christmas Stories: Repeat The Sounding Joy offers a 14-song collection that includes 11 original songs that are interwoven with several carols, and tells the miraculous Christmas story through the eyes of the wise men, the innkeeper, the shepherds and others in order to focus on the details inside the Christmas narrative.  Produced by Cason Cooley (Andrew Peterson, Katie Herzig, Matthew Perryman Jones), Gray's new project also features collaborations with Nichole Nordeman, Joel Hanson, Andy Gullahorn, and Randall Goodgame, that so effectively describe the joy that is encapsulated within a somber dramatic story.

 

"The real story of Christmas can get lost in the shuffle," Jason explains. "But when I had the idea to create a collection of songs that tell the very human stories of the characters we're so familiar with, I was instantly intrigued and excited, and maybe a little daunted, by the prospect. I wanted to bring them back from just being iconic story characters and to consider who they really were, what events were unfolding in their lives, and how they as human beings in extraordinary circumstances were responding."

 

Gray's first Christmas offering is already receiving strong support as the best-selling author and pastor, Max Lucado says, "I love Jason's voice, his songs, and most of all his heart. This Christmas release is a Christmas gift for us all!" I had the great opportunity to interview Jason about his original Christmas song "Christmas Is Coming."

 

There's a quote by G.K. Chesterton wrote that inspired this song and most of the album, 'we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we are.' There are moments in this song that as a songwriter I'm really happy about. This song has one of my favorite images from the whole album, as a songwriter that tries to be like Paul Simon, the transformation of our communities. I live in a small town of about 2,000 people. At Christmas we decorate our main street lamp posts. The lyric we wrote to describe that is "They're dressing up the city in a brightly lighted gown. There's singing in the streets whenever Christmas comes to town." They pipe Christmas music through the speakers in my town, which is remarkable.

Two ideas inspired this song. One of them is to see, to remember, to remark that despite the contrary values found in media, mainstream music and our secular culture, which can be discouraging, that the day after Thanksgiving you can hear the same music in the shopping malls that you hear in church. All of sudden, meaningful things like seeing candles in windows which have storied beginnings in the church, the Gospel overflows out of the church and over all of our culture for these four weeks.

 

We can be miserly about it and think it's all commercialism. There's truth in that. But let's not forget that it's also about the Kingdom of God. The world gets is wrong. Why shouldn't they? They don't understand. They are doing the best they can with what they have. It is better for us as Christians to look at the world celebrating Christmas with a gracious and generous eye. There's evidence that something really significant and powerful happened in history that we're still feeling the echoes of all these years later. Despite our best efforts to misunderstand, ruin, and commercialize, it still evokes wonder, love and joy this season. That's the first idea of the song. The second idea for this song is carried throughout the album, which is a return to childlikeness.

 

Matthew 18:3: And He said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

 

... and 1 Corinthians 13:11-13: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

 

What's the take-away message for listeners for this song and your album?
 

Christmas, rightly understood, is an invitation to become like a child again. I marvel at the significance of God coming to us as a baby. We have no defense against a baby. We have no walls to shut out that kind of innocence. It's so disarming that we can't protect ourselves from it, The Christmas story - the story of God approaching us as an infant, whispers such a profound answer to our world-weariness. In the stories of Mary and Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds and others, the ways they responded to God's approach, we can begin to see ourselves, and how we too might respond to Christ's merciful intrusion into our own lives. I see Christmas as an invitation to be children again to return to innocence and childlike wonder. Joy is such a huge part of that. This record explores the drama and the humanity of these characters—some of whom are in crisis—but the place it's all leading to is 'joy,' to the realization that we can be children again.

 

 

"Someone in our church shared about their granddaughter," Gray says, "and how she asked, 'I know Christmas for us is when Jesus was born into our world. Is Christmas for Jesus when we're born into His world?' I loved that idea and I wrestled with it for months trying to turn it into a full blown song. Eventually I realized it might be better as a shorter little musical poem, sweet and simple, and it became the song, "Christmas For Jesus."

It was such a childlike perspective that I, as a grown man, felt weird singing it. So I thought 'Hey, what about Gus?' My son came into the studio and sang it with his feet up on the wall, playing around with the microphone as he was singing, jumping up and down—but he got it! And it's pretty beautiful, I think. My older boys, Kipper and Jacob, got to sing and do handclaps on the record too, so it was a really special thing to me to have all of them involved."

 

Here's a G.K. Chesterton quote from his book "Orthodoxy": "Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we." 

 

My youngest of three daughters Bethany is only six years old and she has that childlike faith that God challenges us to have. As a father of three young girls, I need to point my girls to their Heavenly Father, God. There's a lot more we can accomplish together by leaning into God as opposed to trying to solve life's challenges on our own. Life is messy and "Christmas is Coming" is a great song celebrating the joy of Jesus coming.

As Christians, Jason and I discussed that the aftershocks of the most important birth in the history of the world, Jesus, has created the commercial celebrations we see all around us. What we need to remember is to "not be conformed to the patterns of this world." We need to sing "Gloria" and celebrate the birth of our King and Savior. Ask the Lord Jesus to look into your heart and allow you to receive Him with a childlike wonder.

 

(You can listen to the song here.)