Thursday, December 30, 2004
Sixth Christmas Day
Matthew 11:28-29 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest ... rest for your souls.
GOD REST YE MERRY, GENTLEMEN
Sometimes the placement of a comma can change the entire meaning of a sentence. The KJV rendering of Romans 9:5 hides the Apostle's clear testimony to the deity of Christ when it puts the comma before the word "God" instead of after it. (It would be clearer still, of course, if the phrase went like this: "who is God over all, blessed forever.")
In singing the old English carol "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" many people put a comma between "you" and "merry" -- God rest you -- comma -- merry gentlemen. In fact, many printings of the carol have done the same. But music historians agree that the line originally read, "God rest you merry -- comma -- gentlemen." "To rest someone merry" meant "to keep someone happy." In other words, this wasn't a wish for happy people to rest, but for people to be and to keep on being happy because Christ is born.
The carol then goes on to find the reason for our continual joy in the purpose for which the Christ came:
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day;
To save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray
The best response to the birth of Jesus isn't rest, but rejoicing. All the more reason to plan our Christmas celebrations and observances in such away that we do not arrive at the long awaited day completely played out. Also a good reason not to try to cram all of Christmas into December 24-25. There's just too much rejoicing to be done and too many reasons to do it right -- that is, to receive the blessings of Christmas "with the Word of God and prayer." Observing the Twelve Days of Christmas between Dec 25th and Epiphany (Jan 6th) has real merit when we daily set aside time to let God widen and deepen our Christmas joy through the Scriptures.
So in these busy days, I do pray the Lord grant you the physical rest you need. But far more importantly, may God give you the joy of personally knowing His forgiving love in "Christ our Savior, who was born on Christmas day!" 