On the Fifth Day of Christmas

Written by Kate Krumreig

"On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me"...you know the words...sing it!   FIVE GOLD RINGS!!!

I just love this part of the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" for so many reasons.  First, I currently teach music to about 500 elementary school students and to hear them sing "five gold rings" at you (ok, maybe closer to shouting than singing on the last day of school before a two week break is a more accurate description) is a sound to behold. 

Second, I cannot think of this song, particularly this part of the song, without thinking of the version recorded by John Denver and The Muppets where Miss Piggy adds her "ba dum bum bum" to the last 2 times through and the whole crew joins in on the last time.  Don't know it?  You will now!  Click here to give it a listen.

Third, and maybe my most favorite reason, it that it is the first point in the song where things slow down and change what has come before it.  The words remain the same for "four collied birds, three french hens, two turtle doves" but the melody changes and becomes, in my opinion, sweeter and no longer monotonous. 

Isn't that just like God?  Doesn't He jump right in when things feel like they're just going to be exactly the stay the same, when they're boring day after day, when you need things to change?  Doesn't He shift the direction of your song?  Read these words from Isaiah (43:19):

See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

As we finish these final sixth-twelfth days of Christmas, ponder the idea that God is bringing you, one of His true loves, five gold rings.  He is doing a new thing in you as he softens your heart regarding all that has happened in your 2019 song.  He is making your song sweeter as He makes a way in the wilderness you face.  He is preparing you not for monotony, but for new, exciting, and wonderful things to bring Him glory in 2020!
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