Silver Cup Blessing

I have reflected on favorite Christmas songs over the past weeks, but I think my favorite remains “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The part of the song that means the most to me is this verse: “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv’n. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin where meek souls will receive him still the dear Christ enters in.” Jesus’s birth was unnoticed and uncelebrated when it happens. In the same way, most of our profound meetings with God, I think, happen in the mundane moments. Jesus met people along the dusty roads and in the gnawing hunger of scraping out an existence. The peace that he brings comes often unseen and so I long to be ready for him, to be seeking him. I love the idea of a silent, quiet moment, but perhaps for so many of us the dear Christ must enter in while we are driving kids to school and activities, while we are carrying out the tasks of our work, when w...

Sometimes poetry and song lyrics communicate just enough to open up new ways of seeing theological truths that cannot possibly be expressed in mere logical propositions and cannot be exhausted through valiant attempts at metaphor. This is how I have felt about “Welcome to Our World": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYSZsrEfvX4 “Fragile fingers sent to heal us, Tender brow prepared for thorn, Tiny heart whose blood will save us, Unto us is born.” Something about the words and music of this song has helped me to sense the reality of Jesus as a little baby, but also Jesus as my Savior. He was an infant just like my five little ones. And the most important story of history was prepared and already underway there in the untidy stable. The final verse of the song not only speaks of that story, but also of how it is woven together with mine, with all of ours: “So wrap our injured flesh around You, Breathe our air and walk our sod, Rob our sin and make us holy, Perfect Son of God, Perfect...

“Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, hail th’Incarnate Deity! Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Immanuel.” (Hark! The Herald Angels Sing) God in the flesh, God with us, is the deepest of mysteries. How can it be? But what has been most striking to me about these lines for years is the reminder that God’s entry into the world was not obvious. Those who came to see Jesus at His birth were those whom God showed (the shepherds through the announcement of the angels and the Magi through the signs in the heavens and the words of the Prophets). There was no halo around Jesus’s head in the manger. There was nothing in the face of a squalling baby that gave the hint that God had done the impossible and become what he had created. For the baby in the manger, this may be easy to acknowledge, but it is also true of the man Jesus, preaching and teaching. We might wish to think that somehow Jesus’s deity was obvious to those who saw him or heard him. He spoke with authority, yes. He perfo...