Thank you for your sweet comments yesterday.You are good to me. Thanks for speaking truth that I couldn’t find on my own.

There are some shows in Nashville that I have been hearing about since I moved up.  Some shows are epic, year after year, or whenever the particular band comes to town, and you have to go.  Because everyone else you have ever met will be there.  Because they know.  They KNOW.  It’s epic.

So it was with Andrew Peterson’s Christmas Show- “Behold the Lamb of God”- which is an album you need to purchase. Like, now —>

Pretty much Andrew Peterson has become my favorite all around writer- books and music. I want him to be the sensei to my literary karate kid.

Type on. Type off.

I’m going to go ahead and say I may not do the best job recapping this event.  Because of aforementioned mild devastation.  And because music does this thing to me which I can never fully write out.  It moves me deeper than that.

The Ryman Auditorium, where the concert was, is music history in building form.  So there is something about sitting in there that just makes you feel.  Feel the past.  Feel the music.  Feel the tingle in your fingers as you lay them on the wood bench to anchor yourself as you scoot to the edge. Because to sit back, for me, was to be too far away.

The first half of the show is songwriters singing originals.  Which was layers of heaven for me.  Bebo Norman, long time respected by your blogista, sang one.  As did Andrew Peterson.  As did Andy Osenga- who taught me that yes, I actually do have a favorite electric guitar player [it’s him]. Michael Card was there, singing some OLD SCHOOL CCM hits that Annie circa 1990 loved. As was Jill Phillips and Randall Goodgame and Andy Gullahorn and Ben Shive.  I mean, y’all.  I could go on and on.  [Go listen to all these folks and consider that your Christmas present from me. You’re welcome.]

The second half is the Behold the Lamb of God album, start to finish, with no talking in between songs.  It tells the story of Jesus’ birth, starting in Genesis- going through the whole Old Testament, describing how it speaks to the birth of Christ over and over. Then they sing about Jesus.  Which I always enjoy, cause they’re talking about Someone many of us have come to love deeply.

I’m listening to it now as I write [a “technique” used in the biz, if you will 🙂], and I’m tearing up just hearing “Deliver Us” again.  Because that whole album pours into your heart and attaches to the edges and almost makes you feel sick it is so good.

And I go to church with these people.  And they worship the same Jesus that I’m depending on.

They write albums, and leave their families to tour the US for all of December, and they write books, and they learn to play instruments better than 98.9% of the population- all to bring the spotlight to this little baby who changed everything.  Forever.

I have a new Christmas tradition. A new heart for the season. And a new album that I CANNOT quit playing.

Wanna read Andrew Peterson’s take on the show?  GO HERE. Obviously, it’s way better than this post.  Well done, Sensei.