What's your favorite Christmas song? I (Princess Melody) don't know if I could choose just one, but I would have to say that one of my favorites is Silent Night. Ever since I was little and watched "Mickey Mouse Christmas Sing-Along", this song has always held a special meaning for me. Something about "holy night" and "sleep in heavenly peace" always felt so Christmas-y. Just recently though, I thought about why it has such a pull. I realized that Silent Night is a very peaceful song ("all is calm, all is bright"). It occurred to me that, if you're anything like me, that that's just what we need during the Christmas Season, peace. Sometimes we just get so rushed decorating, shopping, baking, and wrapping that we forget why Christmas is a holiday.
One dark, bitter cold night in the tiny town of Bethlehem, a girl of about fifteen huddled in an old cave used as a stable. She held in her arms a baby boy, wrapped in a few dirty rags and covered with her own shawl. Her soon-to be husband, Joseph, was filling an animal's feed trough with hay so she would have somewhere to lay her firstborn Son. Cattle mooed, sheep baaed, and that donkey the girl had ridden here was braying still. This girl was Mary, and the baby she held was Jesus. She and Joseph, two people of immense courage and obedience, raised a baby that holds the reason we celebrate this season.
You see, the Christmas story is really just the beginning of the Easter story. Sometimes in the Christmas season, we need quite moments amid all the hustle and bustle to simply remember that. I like to sit by my lit up Christmas tree with the lights off, reading the Christmas story in the Bible, humming Christmas songs, or simply just thinking. The men who wrote Silent Night had the right idea. The night Jesus was born was silent and calm, and so should our Christmas season be. Where you go to find peace this holiday season is left to your discretion, but I challenge you to find a quiet place to remember this Christmas just why we are celebrating!
Princess Melody
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Princess Melody,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post! I especially enjoyed the part when you described when Jesus was born. You are quite right: both Mary and Joseph were very courageous and obedient people! And, as you said, we all should take the time to reflect on what Christmas is really about. That's a good challenge for me, because I usually don't like to take the time to sit quietly and think about the Christmas story. Most of the time I'd rather be playing a game or watching a Christmas movie, but I need to reflect on Jesus and how and why he came, and then praise him for it! Thank you again for the challenge!
~Princess Gloria