I punch the buttons on my car radio as I drive, not satisfied with any of the musical offerings that come into my car with each change of the radio station. I have already grown weary of Jingle Bell Rock, Chestnuts Roasting over an open fire, Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, Winter Wonderland, White Christmas, Santa Claus is coming to town, It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Let it snow, Santa Baby, Rockin’ around the Christmas Tree – well, you get the idea. These “songs of the season” don’t really give me any clue as to who or what we are actually celebrating. 

But there is music that runs through my mind today, filling the silence with it’s almost forgotten words from the past. The song is “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” But as usual I only mostly recall the first verse, so I look up the words to the other three verses to satisfy my curiosity or maybe my longing to bring back those childhood years of singing this and other carols as we celebrated the Advent season. These carols always made so real to me the miracle of Jesus coming here to earth as a baby, the miracle that is Immanuel – God with us. I couldn’t sing the words without reliving the age old story once again. That is still true to this day.

After four hundred years of God’s silence, His people were desperate for His presence. Had they given up hope? Had they stopped watching for His appearance? Seems as if the arrival of the Messiah took them by surprise. Maybe that’s because Jesus wasn’t born in a big, important city such as Jerusalem. He chose instead to be born in a small, out of the way, little known town called Bethlehem. The story is told beautifully in the carol, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”, which as I said, is the song in my head today. It begins -  

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! . . . Yet in the dark street shineth, the everlasting Light, the hopes and fears of all the years, are met in thee tonight. For Christ is born of Mary, . . . O morning stars together proclaim the holy birth, and praises sing to God, the King, and peace to men on earth.” 

How true the words and how wondrous! Into our darkness comes the Light. All the hopes of mankind are realized in the person of Jesus Christ, and all the fears of man are conquered with His appearance on our behalf. 

“In Him was life, and that life was the light of men.” (John 1:4)

“Jesus said, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’ “ (John 8:12) The third verse of the song continues –

“How silently, how silently, the wondrous Gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”

This song acknowledges Jesus as “the wondrous Gift given” to us by God and further tells us that we can receive this gift and Jesus will “enter in” if we have prepared a place for Him in our hearts and in our lives, if we have, as another song says – “prepared Him room.”

The fourth verse echoes the yearning of every human heart for redemption from this broken world and for reconciliation with our holy Creator. The carol continues –

“O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell, O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Immanuel!”

God did descend to us when Jesus was born in Bethlehem that first Christmas. He did come to cast out our sin, making room, so that He could enter into our lives and we could be born again. He came to abide with us. Jesus is Immanuel!

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

The words of the carol tell the story that we celebrate every year. We celebrate the birth of God’s only Son, the birth of the promised Messiah, the birth of the Savior, the birth of the sacrificial Lamb of God, the birth of the Prince of Peace, the birth of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Jesus is all these things and so much more. He brings light into our darkness and hope into our despair. How can we not celebrate that He was born, fulfilling the promise of God to redeem us for Himself? 

When I feel like Christmas is getting lost in the celebrating of the event itself, I find that singing the old songs, songs that tell the story of Christmas, shifts my focus from what surrounds me to the event we say we are celebrating, the event which tore time in two, an event that took place over two thousand years ago, but continues to this day to be the event that changed human history irrevocably, for now and for eternity.

The King has come! The King is coming! Time to celebrate the former while preparing for the latter. The time is now. Advent is here. ”Let every heart prepare Him room!”

“Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is he, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – He is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24:7-10) 

Lord, King of glory, may my heart not be closed to You this Advent season. 

sincerely,  Grace Day