A Not So Silent Night

The black velvet of night’s shadows swathes the little town in a quiet embrace. Were one to simply listen, all that can be heard are the occasional sounds that animals utter in the deep of night, the bleating of a sheep here, the lowing of a cow there. Abruptly, the frail and fragile cry of a newborn baby breaks the sleepy stillness and then is hushed as the little one is comforted by his young mother. No, all is not quite silent. The whisper of God stirs the veils of human sorrow. Into the very midst of violence and hate, Love has come. 

Overhead, tiny torches glitter in the infinite blackness, an innumerable host of stars gazing perpetually down upon the woes of humanity. One star in particular blazes forth as it joyfully announces the sudden advent of hope into the world. So bright is its light that objects and people below cast dim shadows upon the stones of the somber streets. No, all is not completely dark. From the womb of waiting and suffering, a spark of divine Light has been birthed.

Thirty years pass as God’s divine intent nears its culmination. On yet another dark and quiet night, the Lord Jesus, seated with his closest friends and helpers, carefully lays a foundation of hope and understanding to build their perseverance in the next several hours that would temporarily create more questions then would be answered and cause more pain and grief than could be endured.

Yet again, Love is present and has its way. Though it will appear to succumb to the onslaught of human cruelty and evil, in the end, it dethrones these tyrants and even the despot of death.

Yet again, Light has come and illuminates the shades that plague the human heart, beating back the ghosts of disillusionment and despair.

Hear the tender words of the living Light as He prepares these faithful few for the dark road before them. “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  Yet a little while and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.…. These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.  Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:15-21, 25-27 ESV).

Uttering words of hope to hearts that desperately need it, the Lord stokes embers of faith that will ultimately change both the lives of these disciples and then also a world of others to follow. Speaking words of peace to lives that have known anything but peace for the entirety of their existence, He gently anchors them to the sureties that God is truly in control, that His love and power are sufficient for all our needs, and that as we truly and thoroughly place our faith in Christ, we are anchored indeed in spite of the most tumultuous of times. Proclaiming a message of joy, He fills the cup of their lives with meaning, enthusiasm and vision that will move this “good news” to the ends of the earth.

“…(Jesus) said to them… ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you’” (John 16:19, 20-22 ESV).

Christmas is an opportunity to celebrate the hope, peace and joy that the love of Christ secures for us. And because we each have access by faith to the Light of the Truth of God as revealed in Christ Jesus, we may shrug off the clinging claws of despair and walk through life as victorious children of God.

Copyright © Thom Mollohan

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A Stable Start

Imagine the sweet smell of fresh hay wafting through the cozy closeness of the most famous stable in human history. Instead of the lonely and wide open road on a cold and clear night, there is both a warmth and a comforting reassurance that comes even from the presence of barnyard animals housed within, in spite of their shuffling hooves and snuffling noses.

A young woman enters the scene, a little lady who has been chosen by God to bear into the world His Incarnated Word. Supported and cared for by her loving husband, she settles down perhaps with something that is a little like a sigh as she resigns herself to her surroundings. Yet, into this humble and gentle beginning, the Ancient of Days intersects the mortal with His divinity, the temporal with the eternal, the common with the holy.

But it isn’t such an unreasonable postulation… that of God Almighty allowing His Son to be born in such crude circumstances. Maybe we feel that if WE had been in the Father’s shoes, we would have arranged for Jesus to be born in a palace… or at least a Holiday Inn Express. Certainly we would not have condescended to His amazing and wonderful arrival taking place in a barn!

Yet… God chose to do just that. Don’t think for a moment that God was caught off guard by the fact that all the rooms of Bethlehem had filled up: the little Savior was NOT born in a stable because His Dad simply forgot to get a reservation for when they arrived in town.

There truly was, in a sense, “condescension” (God “DESCENDED to be WITH us”). It wasn’t in His being born in a stable, but was rather in His leaving the glory and light of heaven to come into the shadowy dominion of the mundane. Even if He had been born in a dazzlingly glorious palace, it would been so far beneath what He had always known in heaven that it would doubtlessly have been laughable to all of heaven’s citizens who were “in the know”, seeing how the best of human effort compared to the majestic and awesome mansions of heaven.

Yet, when the angels came and announced the birth of Jesus to shepherds who “tended their flocks by night” (Luke 2:8), they did not laugh. They sang. Their eyes were not drawn to what tends to draw our eyes. Whether baby Jesus was born in a stable or in the house of Herod the Great or even Caesar Augustus was of no consequence to them. It was enough that He entered the world.

No… His coming to earth in a stable stall was about cutting through human frivolity and getting straight to the matter of connecting the mercy of God to the need of ALL humanity. Unthinkable in any typically worldly sense is the goodness of God. It isn’t just for the “rich”… it isn’t just for the “religious”… it is for anyone who turns in truth from his or her own waywardness, seeks the incomprehensible forgiveness of God, and embraces God’s will for trusting and holy faithfulness in our lives.

“Born in a stable
    So that all might be able
       To receive His amazing love!

And slain on a tree
   So that we also might be
       Given hope of heaven above!”

“And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.  And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear.  And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, Who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!’  When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.’  And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in a manger.  And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this Child.  And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.   But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.  And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them” (Luke 2:8-20 ESV).

Allow the message of Christmas to pierce the night of your own soul and bring the dawn of God’s grace into your life. Seek the Savior Who came and died so that all men and women everywhere – including you – who will turn to Him in faith might be forgiven and released from the bondage of sin and given the gift of eternity.

Copyright © Thom Mollohan

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