Silent Night?

 

Silent Night!
Holy Night! 

Does this song speak to you?
Or is the commotion in your world pulling you along
on its frantic, ear-splitting rush to nowhere? 

Are your mind and your heart
seeking, needing, desiring peace?

Rest now and experience Christmas.

Bathe in the mystery around us.
Pause and consider the reason,
and breathe in the scent of the season.
Then kneel as the sacred surrounds us. 

That night - that sacred night 
was

Set apart for us to know
that the promised one had come.
Creation’s long awaited Son
has stepped from heaven’s brilliant light
to the darkness here below. 

A baby cries, a woman sighs,
and soon the world would realize
the meaning of this “Silent, Holy night.”

Peace has come to still your heart -
God's peace within your soul.
 
This long awaited peace has come 
to make God's children whole.

Angels We Have Heard

We love Christmas carols, but sometimes we just sing them without thinking about what they’re really saying.   Here is the first line of a Christmas carol that began as a French song.  It was paraphrased in 1862 by an Englishman, James Chadwick.               

"Angels we have heard on high
sweetly singing o'er the plains

and the mountains in reply

echoing their joyous strains…”

Have you ever heard an angel sing?

If we listen to those words – they sound soft and gentle, don’t they?  I’m sure that the writer saw the encounter with the shepherds that way, and that’s nice, but --- sweetly singing?  I’m not so sure that is what came to the ears of the shepherds.  

I’m afraid that my mind doesn’t go there either.  Sweet?  God’s “heavenly host,” His army, announcing the birth of the King of the Universe?  I would be more inclined to believe it sounded like thunder, or a huge brass band than a sweet gentle harp.

The shepherds were frightened by the angel, and the “glory” that surrounded him, as he told them the good news of great joy.  Don’t you think that they were every bit as terrified when the angel was joined by a multitude (a huge number) of “the heavenly host” that filled the sky?

All this to say, though we know that many times God speaks to us in a gentle, quiet voice, there are times when the majesty and power of His words and His works are anything but gentle.  Afterall, He is God Almighty, and the announcement of the event that would change the course of eternity for all of mankind was surely not given in a quiet whisper.  

I suppose this idea touched my heart because so much of the time we Christians don’t look at the power of God, His majesty and might, but only His love and compassion.  I’m so glad that He is filled with power, majesty, might, and love and compassion, aren’t you?  I want to trust my powerful and majestic God who continues to treat me with gentle love, encouragement, and compassion.

Have a beautiful, power-filled Christmas season.

Love, Diane

The Plan

 

It was promised.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are little 

among the thousands of Judah,

yet out of you shall come forth to Me

the One to be Ruler in Israel,

whose goings forth are from of old,

from everlasting.” Micah 5:2 (NKJV)

Where do you think that a king should be born?

In a fine golden palace on a warm summer morn,

with the servants all hurrying and royalty worrying,

and the citizens waiting to hear of his birth?

Or, I wonder 

where do you think that God’s Son would be born,

in the home of the lightning, the lair of the storm?

Would God’s thunder and glory
shout from the mountains?

Would the four winds proclaim this good news to the earth?

God’s Son was born in Bethlehem – a little town.  He was born far from home.  He was born in a dirty stable.  

It was promised.
It was planned.

Why that plan? 

Neither of these pictures seem to have been part of God's  plan.  Maybe because He wanted us to realize that we are all His children, each one of us, not just the mighty, the rich and the royal.  We are His children, the lowly, the poor, the old and the unborn.  

I believe God wanted us to know that our hometowns are never too remote, our homes are never too small.  The money in our bank accounts or the reflection in our mirror will never have any bearing on two facts.  

We are children of The King, 
and He loves us so much that He
would give His life to save us.

Bethlehem seemed insignificant, but it wasn’t.  We may feel insignificant, but we aren’t. It was promised.  Jesus, our Savior was promised.  Eternal life is promised for those who believe.  

And for sure, God keeps His promises.

God bless you today in so many ways.