Song Three

Beyond any doubt that I have there are five greatest events.  The first is creation.  In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  What power displayed, what wonder offered to us and what tremendous blessings are ours in this grand earth and life given to us for our use and pleasure.  The second is the birth of Christ Jesus, but let me skip that for now.  The third is the Savior dying on the cross so that His blood might wash us clean and we could be adopted into the family of God the Father of all.  Surely it was a black, dismal day, filled with pain, gore, blood, heartache and death.  But it was a wondrous day too.  A day when sins were condemned in the flesh, life and death of Jesus.  A day when the greatest words, as Jesus pushed himself up on his nail stabbed feet, were whispered through teeth clenched against the pain,  "Father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing."  A handful watched and wept while the majority ranted and ridiculed, laughing at his torment.  But then, early on Sunday morning, the fourth great thing happened.  Resurrection!  The stone rolled; soldiers fainted; angels came to see; the death cloth neatly folded and Jesus came walking out and lying battered, bloody and beaten behind him, still in the tomb, was the great enemy…Death.  Death was defeated and became a servant to believers from that moment on. 

And the fifth?  That's the strange one.  The fifth was the day I was born and for you it was the day you were born.  That day you and I were blessed to take part in this great thing called life.  We were blessed to share the earth and its glories.  We were given an opportunity to share a relationship with the God of all grace, who loves us more than life itself, as He demonstrated on the cross.  Without our own birth, of course, we wouldn't know any of these things and we couldn't share them.  So we have to count our own birth as one of the greatest things that ever happened, don't we?

Now let me go back to number two.  Imagine yourself on a grassy hill outside of Bethlehem.  Sheep are nervously baaing all around you and the ebon-dark sky, filled with stars, leaves you at peace and you drowse a little, head bobbing onto your chest.  The sheep quiet their moaning and there is a wonderful stillness.  Suddenly a great light and terribly awesome voice breaks your weariness and jolts you upright. 

"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of 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."

After that the sky is filled with angels all singing "Glory to God in the highest.  Peace.  Good will toward men!"

The poet, Placide Cappeau put himself there and wrote the words to my third favorite song:  "Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shining…"  And as he wrote and wondered at the greatness of the news he came to the one conclusion that we all ought to come to:  "FALL ON YOUR KNEES!  FALL ON YOUR KNEES!"  When Adolphe-Charles Adam put the words to music he knew that those words couldn't be sung pianissimo.  They were words of crescendo meant to be sung forte.  This was the great earth event:  God came to live with us!  God came!  Think of this, let your heart be filled with it.  How deep is the love of God?  Deep enough that He came to eat at our dinner table and wash our feet.  God came and the angels sang "GLORY!"  God came and we "FALL ON OUR KNEES!"

Martina McBride sings it A Cappella – this is a version I think you might like.

Oh Holy Night