Monday, December 20, 2010
SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT:
ALL IS CALM ... 'ROUND YON VIRGIN
Surely compared to a town so packed with people, most of them relatives, night-time in a stable might be considered calm. Perhaps in the wee hours of the morning the bulging town was asleep, but even then it is a little difficult to imagine all being calm around a woman in hard labor.
The beloved Christmas song, however, is imagining the time after she brought forth her first-born son, when she "wrapped him in strips of cloth, and laid him in a manger." And yes, it was calm in the sense that she was apparently alone; no mid-wife or nurse to wrap the new-born. She did it herself. Where was Joseph? Standing by supportively, or out trying to find someone to help? Where were the angels? Well, we know where a multitude of them were. Do you think a fifteen-year-old having her first baby in a stable many miles from home would feel alone in a situation like that? In that sense it was calm: no neighbors from Bethlehem toasting Joseph in the next stall.
What amazing things our God can do when all is calm! He does not need our hubbub and hurry in order to accomplish wondrous things! He needs none of our preparations, our shopping or baking. He will rescue the entire human race from the pit whether the general population is tuning in or not! It is we who benefit from all the time and effort we put into remembering and rejoicing. But if there should be some in faraway barracks or in other lonesome, "calm" circumstances, this will be no hindrance to our Savior's coming to them, and filling their hearts with the peace that transcends understanding. And so may He also come to all of us.
