It Came Upon A Midnight Clear

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
From heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Last Sunday I was on nursery duty, which I am very thankful for.  It’s a blessing for us to have a nursery full of little people and an answer to many prayers.  But because of that, the only part of the service I was in for, was the singing time.  Since it’s Christmas that is an especially nice thing, and I was enjoying singing along to the carols with everyone else, when a verse of a familiar carol arrested my attention.  We were singing, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and I found that the lyrics to a less familiar verse captivated me, and spoke to my heart the meaning of Christmas and the reason why this season is so special.  It was the message my heart needed that morning. 

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

I don’t know about you, but a lot of days I feel tired; like really tired.  Life has a way of wearing you down: sickness, anxieties, money struggles, broken relationships…….. and those are just the ones in your own backyard.  Then turn on the news and read about wars, terrorism, abuse, political corruption.  The list of things that add up to feel like we are carrying a crushing load pile up quickly.  It’s not hard to feel discouraged.  It’s not hard to feel like we are bending almost to the point of breaking under the weight.  Living is really hard work some days. And while the years fly by, the days sometimes pass really slowly.  Sometimes you can feel every step and those steps seem painfully slow.

That’s why Christmas is so precious.  The Christmas season invites us to rest, if not physically, then at least mentally, beside the weary road (the road that is wearing us out literally and figuratively).   It beckons us to open our hearts and remember what the angels came to say.  “Peace on the earth, Goodwill to men”………… are those things really possible?  It certainly doesn’t seem that way.  It really doesn’t look that way.  And it definitely hasn’t been that way.  But they tell us that, “to us a child has been born, a son has been given, his name will be called: Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”  The angel’s message offers us hope that peace on earth is not only possible, but that it is really coming.  And that sounds nice, but it’s hard to reconcile with the world that we live in every day.  That is the beauty of Christmas.  At Christmas God didn’t just make some pretty promises, or pat us on the head and tell us he loved us, or give us a few of the things that we were hoping for.  If that was all that happened then Christmas would empty and the hope of something better would feel out of reach.  But God didn’t just tell us that He loved us, or offer some empty promises; He actually came.  The God who created us came to walk in our shoes.  “The word became flesh and dwelt among us”.  That’s incredible.  It’s one thing to offer promises from afar, to feel pity, to offer some assistance; but to come?  And then not just to come, but to be born as one of us. 

I’ve lived in China now for quite a few years.  But I’m not Chinese.  Coming here, and living among them, didn’t do that for me.  I understand them better than I did before I came, and the longer I am here, the more that understanding grows.  But nothing can make me truly and fully understand what it means to be Chinese.  To do that I would need to be born into a Chinese home.  There are so many things that don’t translate across cultures; so many experiences and nuances of the culture that you can’t really grasp without being one of them, born and bred.  And so God didn’t just come visit us, or come live for a few years, he was actually born as one of us.  That’s breathtaking.   It’s the only way to really grasp it, what it means to be human.  So he experienced our weakness, our pain, our sicknesses, our struggles, and our fears from the inside out.  And then, after all of that, He provided a way for our salvation, by his own death.  And if you have every doubted that we need salvation, just take a look around, we (the whole human race of us) are a mess.  We certainly can't save ourselves, we just repeat our mistakes again and again throughout time and history.  But because of Christmas and the Cross, it won't always be that way; the best is yet to come.

For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When the new heavens and earth shall own

The Prince of Peace their King
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Christmas is overflowing with hope.  Not because of the traditions, or the decorations, or the music, or the gifts (although those all help us to pause and take notice).   It’s because the God who loved us enough to become one of us, is promising us an eternity where Peace of Earth is a reality.  He is offering us the ultimate gift, life forever by His side.  That’s enough to pick up my weary head, and put a spring back in my step, it’s enough to see the days for as fleeting as they truly are.  If this was all there was, then it would be too much (too hard, too painful, too empty).  But because of Christmas we wait in expectant hope for the day when full and perfect peace is our reality. Because of that we can keep pressing on and reaching out, and sharing the love and peace He offers with a world that so desperately needs it.  We can invite people to stop and hear the song the Angel's sing.  That's what Christmas is for.  

It came upon a midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, goodwill to men,
From heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come,
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o’er its Babel sounds
The blessèd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo!, the days are hastening on,
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Comes round the age of gold
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.

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• The Christmas carol It Came Upon A Midnight Clear is a poem written by Edmund Sears.