Tuesday, December 21, 2010
SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT:
ALL IS BRIGHT ... 'ROUND YON VIRGIN
It is a little difficult to know if the translator of the carol "Silent Night" had anything in mind with "all is bright" besides rhyming with "night." But it is worth pondering as we sing it. The poverty of the family's outward circumstances might easily have made the occasion seem gloomy and dark. There was none of the glitter that might have dazzled the eyes in the palace at Jerusalem.
But in that stable was the young mother who, long before she saw or held the promised One in her arms, had magnified the Lord, her spirit rejoicing in God her Savior. So powerful is God's word of promise that it can bring joy to the heart before the fulfillment is ever seen.
Mary would have known of the words of her cousin Elizabeth's husband Zacharias at the circumcision of their son John. It had been just months before that Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, had spoken of how John would prepare the way for Lord. From this Lord would come salvation, the forgiveness of sins, "because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace" (Lk 1:78-79). When Mary looked upon her infant Son and saw this evidence of the tender mercy of our God, it was indeed "bright round yon virgin mother and child."
We too have the word of the prophets fulfilled. May we again this week look to it, like a light shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the Morning Star arises in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19).
You come, Lord, in the dark of night
To make us children of the light!
