On the 1st Day of Christmas
my true love gave to me
a partridge in a pear tree. 

This famous Christmas song is significantly deeper than one might think. It sounds a little silly to hear of lords a leaping and ladies dancing but each of these have a meaning behind the words. And we’re going to unpack these meanings over the next 12 days. These 12 days culminate with a day known as Epiphany, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We will start at the beginning and we’ll get to day 12 in due time.

Today we’ll take a look at the opening and day 1. The song starts with my true love. It’s easy to think of this true love as someone like a boyfriend or girlfriend, perhaps a husband or wife, but that’s not the point really. I mean who wants to get a partridge from their spouse? That’s ridiculous!

The bible talks about God being our true love. In Revelation, we read that when the church loses its true love it stops believing God can do what He promises. So our true love, our first and most special love, should always be God. And when this framework is set the rest of the song makes a whole lot more sense.

For instance, the partridge in a pear tree isn’t really the bird but rather it’s a reference to God’s Son who like a partridge would perch in a tree. Only His tree was in the shape of a cross. Did you know that the partridge was selected specifically for this reference? It’s not just because it had the right number of letters and syllables. A partridge is a bird that is willing to sacrifice itself to save its young.

So on this first day of Christmas we celebrate the partridge, Jesus, as He is perched on the cross, willingly giving up His life to save you and me. This is the first and greatest gift we have received from our true love, God the Father.

Come back tomorrow as we look a little closer at the two turtle-doves.