I love Christmas songs and I’ve been listening to them for a couple months now. There are several songs that are my favorites. One of them is “O Holy Night.” That song has been performed by many of the great singers.
As you look at this song one of the first things you may notice is that the song is inspired by the shepherds in the field. Luke says, “… there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by NIGHT” (Luke 2:8). Then the song tells about the angel voices and Luke says, “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!” (Luke 2:13-14).
Then the phrase of the song which is: “A Thrill of HOPE.” As I thought about this phrase, it seemed to be the most important aspect of Christ’s birth — HOPE! So if you take Christ out of Christmas, you’ve pretty much take the HOPE out of the season.
Fifteen or twenty years ago many schools, attempting to be “politically correct” started changing the Christmas program to a “winter program” or holiday program. Basically they thought they needed to take Jesus out of the program so it would be acceptable to everyone. I heard about a school that took the song “Silent Night” and changed the words to match their “winter” program. So the song was changed to “Cold In The Night.” Part of the lyrics went like this: “How I WISH I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm.”
That doesn’t sound very cheerful. But that is exactly what happens when you take Jesus away! The world often becomes harsher, darker, and lonelier. Now that’s what the song “O Holy Night” is trying to describe: “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” The world – without Jesus – is a world filled with sin and error. A world without HOPE!
But God declared to these simple shepherds a message of hope. We’re told “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!” (Luke 2:11-14).
Now this was far more than a birth announcement! God was making a promise: “Unto you is born ...
