I received a great many presents this Christmas. I almost felt guilty about this. But then my philosophical training saved the day. I began to think about the nature of giving gifts to celebrate Christmas and I could hear my Sunday-school teacher deliver s tidbit of that simple, yet profound wisdom little Christian children pick up in between goldfish snack breaks: "We give presents to each other to remember the greatest present of all: God's gift of His Son to mankind." Right. That made me think of the concept of grace. Then I realized that all the gifts abundantly bestowed upon me by spouse, parents, parents-in-law, siblings, grandparents, students, and others are images of grace in my life; human imitations of that Grace that has redeemed my nature and brought me into the glorious kingdom of heaven. (See Dr. Sanders here for a discussion of nature, grace, and glory.)
Two of these little graces in my life have flowered into big graces: CDs by Sufjan Stevens and Switchfoot.
On the face of it, these modern musicians have little in common: Sufjan's music is produced independently, Switchfoot now has a major label promoting them in Columbia; Sufjan plays banjo and about 18 other instruments in his folk rock style, Switchfoot offers consistent pop-rock; Sufjan is from the Midwest, Switchfoot consists of SoCal surfers.
Sufjan and Switchfoot, though, are both doing their best to fulfill their callings as human beings made in the image of God by making music as an expression of who they are in the form of a gift to others - in spite of their evangelical backgrounds.
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