How much is Mariah Carey paid for one Christmas song?

When you read the words, “All I want for Christmas is you,” does the song by that title immediately spring to mind? If so, you’re not alone: the song by Mariah Carey, recorded in 1994, is one of the best-selling Christmas songs of all time. And it earns her an estimated $3.5 to $4 million every year.

Why is it so successful? The answer in part is Carey’s amazing vocals. But another is the theme of the song. In an interview with Good Morning America, she recounted its origin: “I was working on it by myself . . . on this little Casio keyboard and writing down words and thinking about, ‘What do I think of at Christmas? What do I love? What do I want? What do I dream of?’” She added, “My goal was to do something timeless, so it didn’t feel like the ’90s, which is when I wrote it.”

Her lyrics, whimsical as they are, do express something timeless: “Santa Claus won’t make me happy with a toy on Christmas Day,” because “all I want for Christmas is you.”

“The Western world has turned officially crazy”

We are created to want more than the “toys” this world can offer, because we were created for the eternal world to come. That’s why possessions must not possess us, since nothing we can make can fill the “God-shaped emptiness” with which God made us.

Sinners can no more save themselves from sin than drowning people can save themselves from drowning. And our fallen world is far too unpredictable to be a reliable source of stability.

There was a day when people viewed the future as a time of progress and even glamour. Radios and record players brought music into homes that could not afford pianos. Movies offered inexpensive theater tickets. The Model T and its successors afforded ordinary people the kind of personal transportation once reserved for the coach-owning elite. The material abundance of the post-war era brought new suburban homes, televisions, and kitchen gadgets.

That was then, this is now.

Looking ahead to 2050, Pew Research Center found that:

• 66 percent of Americans think the US economy will be weaker.
• 71 percent say the US will be less important in the world.
• 77 percent believe our country will be more divided politically.
• 81 percent say the gap between the rich and the poor will grow.

From avian flu in California to drought in the Southwest to declining American air superiority in the world to an emerging military threat in Pakistan, today’s news offers no shortage of reasons to fear the future. As one geopolitical analyst wrote recently, “One would be forgiven” for thinking “the Western world has turned officially crazy.”

“A pessimist is never disappointed”

We fear the future in large part because it is, by definition, unknown and unknowable, and we fear what we do not know. Why?

In part, such fear is a primordial survival response—if we anticipate the worst, we think we are better prepared if it happens. “A pessimist is never disappointed,” as the saying goes.

But such fear also says something about our view of God. Most of us believe that he is so omniscient that he knows the future and so omnipotent that he can do what he chooses to do. We’re just not always sure his choices for us are what we would choose for ourselves.

The ancient Greeks and Romans depicted Zeus and their other gods as capricious and unkind, reflecting the world these deities supposedly ruled. Our world is just as fallen and chaotic as theirs, which leads us to wonder if our God is just as capricious and unkind.

This is why Christmas is such good and essential news.

“Perfect love expels all fear”

The next time you wonder if God loves you, remember his decision to send his Son to die for you. Remember his Son’s decision to give up his glory in heaven to take on human flesh so he could die for human sins. Remember the humility of his birth, illustrating the unconditional compassion of his grace.

Scripture declares, “Perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love” (1 John 4:18 NLT). A. W. Tozer commented:

“Love casts out fear, for when we know we are loved, we are not afraid. Whoever has God’s perfect love, fear is gone out of the universe for him.”

In this light, consider some wisdom from the esteemed Wall Street Journal opinion writer Peggy Noonan. On her recent book tour, she was asked, “Are you an optimist?” Her response:

Optimists tend to think the right, nice thing will happen, and I don’t necessarily. But I have faith and I have hope. Life takes guts. Don’t let all the bad news enter you and steal your peace. Keep the large things in your head. Two millennia ago a baby was born and the whole ridiculous story—the virgin, the husband, the stable, the star—is true, and changed the world. Compared to which our current concerns are nothing.

“Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take”

The English poet William Cowper, who struggled mightily with depression and despair, nonetheless pointed the way to the hope we need:

Deep in unsearchable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up his bright designs,
And works his sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

What “clouds” will you trust to your loving Lord today?

Tuesday news to know:

• Former President Bill Clinton is in the hospital after developing a fever, spokesperson says
• Biden gives life in prison to 37 of 40 federal death row inmates before Trump can resume executions
• House Ethics report says Matt Gaetz paid for sex, possessed drugs
• Man faces murder charges in death of a woman who was lit on fire in New York City subway
• On this day in 1923: President Coolidge lights first national Christmas tree

*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.

Quote for the day:

“The great God not only loves his saints, but he loves to love them.” —Jerry Bridges