Johann Sebastian Bach is my favorite composer. I played and memorized many of his inventions and preludes in high school. I didn’t know that one day I would arrange one of his most known melodies that is still performed at weddings around the world almost 300 years after its composition. It is known as “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” This piece is the opening track on the “December Peace” album in tribute to Bach. One of his great quotes is “The aim and final end of all music should be unto the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”

As I arranged the hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” to include original piano with the familiar, haunting melody, this piece became the full expression of the darkness of this world, the longing of the human heart for a savior, and the rejoicing that comes when the good news is embraced.  Isaiah foretold his birth (Isaiah 7:14).  Luke recorded how the angel came down to the shepherds in the field the night of his birth (Luke 2:8-15).  John wrote the last words he spoke before his death on the cross (“It is finished” – John 19:30). The opening and closing three muted strikes of a low E on the piano represent the nails going into the cross, the finished work.  The music in between represents my desperate need of a savior and the rejoicing in God’s gift of salvation to me through Jesus.

Today I had the opportunity to record several selections from “December Peace” on a 1938 Steinway grand piano in Chicago as part of interview with Moody Radio. The song “Shepherds and Stars” was inspired by Luke 2:8-15. I shared how this piece reminds me that we are all like “shepherds in the field” going about our daily lives, much like the shepherds in the story. Just as an angel came down to announce that a Savior had been born to them, God wants to engage with us in life each day, to meet us in our circumstances, to give us a hope that He offers through this Savior that was born for us.