And the final week has begun
Good morning to you!
Our final week in the countdown to Christmas and I have in mind to just look at some of my favorite hymns, carols or song of the season in a gentle way…a short way…because we are all checking off those last items from the list.
So I hope you will stop in each morning…I hope I will be here before you…but well…it’s still me and you know how I struggle with that time management thing.
But here is today’s sweet Christmas song…
this year I have been humming O Little Town of Bethlehem A LOT
Written by Phillips Brooks in 1865 for his Sunday School class of children, it is one of my favorites.
The traditional melody is as tranquil as the picture created by the lyrics.
He wrote it after visiting Bethlehem and it paints such a picture of the miracle of Christ’s birth in the unlikeliest of places…the dark streets of a sleeping town under the stars moving across the sky.
The same stars that moved for eons across the same expanse of sky.
Thrown up there by the Creator who made them and knows them by name.
And then that night, an Everlasting Light enters this world. That very Creator come to dwell among us.
I think the line that grabbed me as a child and continues to minister to my heart over the years is this one …
The hopes and fears of all the years…are met in thee tonight
I love that about Jesus.
I love that He meets us – the real us – in the places where our deepest hopes rest…some dormant…some dashed…some waning…some flickering…some fresh and faith-filled AND He knows our fears…the big ones…the small ones…the ones that have substantial reason to fuel them…and the ones that are fabricated.
He knows them all and meets them all, head on….and loves us and guides us and comforts us through each of them.
I love the invitation at the end…the prayer asking the Holy Child to enter into our hearts and to be born again in us each day.
I hope you will google it today…I do indeed…it has been recorded by a variety of artists over the years…but I know the Lord would be so blessed to hear your own sweet voice sing that hymn to Him today <3
I will be joining you from my desk here.
Blessings and I will see you tomorrow <3
It’s not Christmas to me without the old carols. But best of all is when I get to sing them to people who also love to hear them AND join along, like the seniors who no longer are able to get out and about during the holidays. Just a few singers in the presence of people who most certainly love Jesus and the comfort and hope that Away in a Manger, The First Noel, and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen can bring. That experience has been a highlight for me this Christmas season. Merry Christmas Laura, to you and your family!
I agree. It is always tender to me to see how music continues to resonate deep in those who have lost their ability to communicate through speech. They will still mouth the words as the old hymns are played. How sweet that must sound in heaven <3