O Holy Night, Part 1

O Holy Night. It's my mother's favorite Christmas song. I've listened to it sung by Nat King Cole and Andy Williams, Josh Groban and Carrie Underwood, but the most favorite version in our family is N'SYNC. What can I say? The heart loves what the heart loves. And I do love this song.

While this song is iconic for the beautiful voices who have carried these notes through concert halls, across albums and into our hearts, it is the powerful words that strike the listener to the core:

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of our dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and sorrow pining,
‘Til He appear’d and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn...

Can you feel it? Can you feel the sorrow? The heavy weight of this broken world on your soul? Can you close your eyes and see the hurt on the faces of the hungry you've driven past today? Can you call to mind the tears that streaked down your child's face as they were ridiculed, teased and rejected? Can you remember the ache of a body broken by sickness? Does your soul groan over the loss of someone you love so deeply?

That is where God finds us. In the mess, in the anguish, in the longing for things to be different. He finds the Israelites amidst great oppression. He finds His chosen people displaced from their homeland. He finds women without position or voice. He finds brutal Roman leadership. He finds a weary world. And that's His cue to enter in.

He doesn't look from afar. He doesn't send money, or a delegate, or a rescue spaceship. He comes. The King comes Himself, into a broken, humble, lowly world. He sees our pain and He enters in.

I love the language of this stanza. It is the perfect tension of light and dark, of defeat and victory, of sorrow and healing, of despair and hope. The night Jesus comes to this earth, the dark no longer stands alone. The despair no longer holds court. The sorrow has a challenger. The oppressed have a champion. The light of the world has come, a new morning is breaking. Our souls can feel it break as the music crescendos to this glorious moment.

And we fall on our knees. It's amazing because our pain has brought us to our knees before. We've fallen to our knees and begged for mercy. But now, now, we fall on our knees in awe of the mercy that has come. We can't help but be amazed at how God has seen our need and come, in person, to dwell with us. To dwell with us in our pain, in our fear, in our loneliness. The God of the universe has come to comfort His people, and He's come in person. We fall on our knees and thank God that He has arrived just in time.

The power of this song is that there is a thrill of hope within this weary world; this song captures both the longing of our hearts for the complete healing that Jesus will bring someday and the complete relief we feel that He has not left us to dwell in the anguish alone. He has come. We, the weary, are rejoicing! How miraculous is that?!

I want to stand in the light of the dawn breaking. I want to feel the first rays of sunlight on my face. Yonder it breaks. The fulfillment of hope is coming. The anguish will end. And while I stand and wait, I will take the nail-pierced hand of my Savior, and watch the glorious morn break with Him by my side. He has brought hope, He has cued the dawn. The soul has felt it's worth. The night which was once so bleak is now holy and glorious. Praise be to God that the night breaks way to dawn!