It Came upon a Midnight Clear

A few weeks ago I released my latest book, Unwrap. It is a collection of thoughts on a lyrical line in some of the most beloved Christmas hymns. If this doesn’t make sense to you, here is one of the chapters. After writing some of the chapters, I wondered if anyone would get it or feel encouraged reading it. This chapter was one that a reader said was one of their favorites. So, here you go. I hope you find some inspiration in this beautiful hymn and my favorite line.

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There is so much beauty in a cloudless night. In summer evenings I love to lie in my driveway and look up at the stars. I sometimes wish I knew more of what I was looking at, but I can at least pick out the two Dippers. But not knowing the stars’ names or which twinkling lights make up the constellations doesn’t minimize the beauty. You don’t have to understand something to lie in amazement of it.

That is the astonishment of beautiful things; an art historian and a punk teenager can both look at a statue carved by Michelangelo and stand in awe of its beauty. Beauty draws us all in no matter where we are from. It is the great equalizer.

There is so much in this world that is ugly. Not just an ugliness in physical appearance, but in shock value, rudeness, egotism, hatred, and division. However, there is a sweet feeling to breathe a sigh of relief and forget about the drama that seems to ebb its way into our hearts. Some of the best memories at Christmas time are those quiet nights after the television has been turned off and the only things on are the lights from the Christmas tree giving off their beautiful glow. It’s in those quiet moments that my heart breathes a sigh of relief. It may not be flashy or showy, but these are the beautiful moments in life to sit before the lights and feel a sense of peace.

There is so much beauty in the feeling of peace. I wonder if that is why I feel a longing to stare up at the black sky and gaze upon the heavenly lights to find that feeling of peace that eludes me through the day. To look up at the great expanse above that stretches from east to west as far as I can see. It is in those moments of solitude that I feel humbled. When life is going haywire and I start to focus all my time and energy on myself, it is easy to get sucked into that whirlpool of only looking at myself. Watching my own back. Making sure I have what I need. Deciding what is best for me.

But when I lie under the stars, I realize I am not the center of everything. I am not the sun. And then as I stare up at the heavens a little longer I remember the sun isn’t in the middle of everything. It is only in the middle of our little solar system, which is a dot in the Milky Way Galaxy, which is an even tinier dot in the entire universe.

We may think that without us life would cease to exist, but the only thing that is going to stop existing once we are gone is ourselves. The world is going to keep going. Our loved ones may grieve for a period, but their lives will continue. It may not continue the way they like, but the world will not come to a halt when we take our last breath. All the tragedies in the world that have come before never caused the world to stop. It may have rattled people to their core, but the world kept spinning.

An old Christmas carol that I don’t hear too often, “It Came upon the Midnight Clear”, has a stunningly beautiful line that we all need to hear:

“O rest beside the weary road”

You may wonder why we are singing about a weary road in a Christmas carol, but I think this line is pertinent because we all have weary roads. There are days that are ugly with rude customers, backstabbing co-workers, hateful clients, disgruntled employers, back-talking kids, and sudden heartbreaks. It is easy to want to run and hide away on days of walking the weary road. You may have been walking a weary road for days or weeks or maybe even years. I am deeply sorry for the road you have walked.

I am an optimist. I try my hardest to spin any lemon in life into a glass of sugary lemonade. I try to squeeze the storm clouds and pop out a rainbow. I try to see every coin toss as a positive.

But sometimes it is okay to just take a break and rest. Some of my favorite stories in the Bible are when Jesus was consoling those who were hurting. He didn’t brush away their pain with a fake smile. He didn’t douse them with a bottle of good tidings and push them on their way. He didn’t pretend there wasn’t any ugliness in the world.

In fact, I think Jesus saw the ugliness of the world much clearer than anyone else. He heard the words said to women in the marketplace. He witnessed the downcast looks of the lepers begging for a touch. He saw the arrogant noses turn a blind eye to the poor and needy. He came face to face with those clinging to their last thread.

But He also knew what no one else knew. He knew the hearts of everyone around Him. He knew the thoughts of doubt that followed Him as they were mixed among the faithful crowd. Yet He also knew the motives in the crowds’ actions in their needs for selfish prayers answered. He read the minds of backstabbers and so-called friends. He foresaw the outcomes that the deniers didn’t want to see. He saw the ugliness in each man and woman’s heart. He saw the corrosion of sin that was covered with perfumed robes. He knew the darkness that feasted upon every man’s heart.

And He still knows.

And He still doesn’t pass over our weary roads like a crosswalk. No, He stops and rests beside us. He offers us His hand to hold and His shoulder to lean on. He doesn’t give up when the going gets tough, and He never abandons us when all our friends have scurried away. He doesn’t point out our flaws, but touches our wounds mercifully and shows us a new direction. But He doesn’t force us to move. He doesn’t push us from the nest. He doesn’t belittle the baby steps of faith. He meets us where we are and waits.

Your weary road may be at the bottom of a bottle. He’s not judging your drunken stupor. Your weary road may be in the arms of another lover. He’s not judging your loveless actions. Your weary road may be with a line of white powder. He’s not judging your misguided outlet. Your weary road may be a cutting razor blade. He’s not judging your need for a relief. Your weary road may be restless nights in bed. He’s not judging your self-torment.

Even though those weary roads are destructive, He still finds you where you are. God roams the halls of every prison just as He roams the halls of my prisoner’s heart. There is no place that His light cannot shine. You may not see His light shining, but it is. It may just be a flicker, a flint, a tiny spark, but His light is too powerful to be extinguished. Nothing can separate you from His light.

We all have a weary road. But you don’t have to walk it alone. Put down that bottle. Get out of that bed. Flush away those drugs. Bandage up your arm. Look in the mirror and see a ray of hope. If you don’t see it, ask someone who can point it out to you. Then ask another. And another. And another.

Fan that flame until you can see it.

But if you are tired, just rest for a while. And then try tomorrow. There is nothing wrong with resting. It’s only wrong when you give up. Resting is not giving up. Resting is gearing up to fight another day.

So take a deep breath. And then take another. And then take another. It doesn’t matter how many deep breaths you take as long as it leads you closer to taking another step.

And when you are ready, you don’t have to walk the weary road alone. Life is about finding a hand to hold in the hard moments. It is about locking elbows with another to spur one another on. It is about grabbing a shoulder when you need a crutch. It is about whispering hopeful words into one another’s ears when the weary road looks too hard.

Because the weary road isn’t that hard. It is just like all the other roads.

But one of the best things about the weary roads is those are the roads where you can feel Jesus walking beside you the most. It is not that He doesn’t walk beside you on all the other roads, but we tend to ignore His presence in the straight paths, the beachfront walkways, the cozy sidewalks, and the landscaped driveways because we don’t feel like we need to lean on His eternal strength when life is going well. He is still walking beside us on those journeys, but sadly, we miss His touch because we are not reaching out for it.

But when we walk on the gravel roads that may trip us, we reach out for help. Those are the moments that we feel Him closest because we take our eyes off of ourselves and look toward Him.

I have a love-hate relationship with the weary roads. I hate them when life is going lovely. I hate the feeling of being pressed and broken. But sometimes we have to be broken to be made better than ever. I hate the feeling of brokenness, but I love to feel His touch when He’s mending. I may hate the weary roads when I’m walking through them, but my history of weary roads is one I would never want to erase. It’s in those low paths that I felt His love and mercy the most. It’s in those weary roads when I felt His rest. It’s in those deserted roads that I finally knew I wasn’t deserted because He was with me. He was always with me.

May we learn to feel His touch this Christmas season when we see the beauty. But if you are seeing the ugliness, reach out. He’s there.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

In peace I will lie down and sleep,
for you alone, Lord,
make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 NIV

God,

     Walk with me on the weary and not-so-weary roads. Amen

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If you enjoyed this chapter, check out the others on Amazon.

Unwrap

Last November I would take my family out for supper to get my parents out of the house during COVID. We would drive to neighboring towns and sit in their parking lot and eat our supper and just enjoy each other’s company. Then on the way home I would usually listen to Christmas music.

As I was driving home from Owensboro one night a line from O Holy Night hit me. I had sung this song many times before, but suddenly the line resonated like it had never done before.

So I quickly came home and sent out a simple blog. One reader responded very favorably. So I thought about writing another blog post about another line from a Christmas hymn. That blog also caused a favorable response.

Thus the idea for Unwrap was conceived.

I love Christmas music. I listen to it at work, in the car and around the home. There is something comforting about these Christmas hymns and the season surrounding these beautiful songs.

So one night I pulled out a couple of hymnals on my piano and started flipping through the Christmas hymns and reading the songs without a melody but just reading them for their lyrical content. I soon saw that many Christmas hymns contained more than the story of Christ birth, but they tell of grace, mercy, hope, love and the story of salvation.

These Christmas hymns are more than singing about a newborn baby, but singing of the Savior of the world – a Savior that came to earth to dwell with us. To go through the lows of life with us. To heal our wounds. To fight our battles. To befriend the lonely. To feed the needy.

The more I read these hymns the more I was seeing the beauty of Christ and His sacrifice.

The more I dug into these words and tuned out their melodies the more I discovered the greatness of who He was.

So, I hope if you take the time to read this book you will see the symbolism of Unwrap. I hope you unwrap, dig into, explore, rediscover, examine these hymns with a new perspective. Don’t look at these hymns like you did last year, but see them as beautiful tellings of the gospel.

We live in a cold, dark world, but thankfully we have the Light of the world.

Early Merry Christmas!

If you are interested, click the link below. Peace

Merry & Bright – It’s Not Always

I hope each and every one of you have had a very Merry Christmas. But I know there are some of you who have struggled emotionally, physically and financially. This may have been the worst Christmas in your memory and I am truly sorry.

I wish I could strip away the pain that has left you Sorrowful and Dark this holiday and let you experience the Merry and Bright.

In the last month I have been reading many Christmas Carols and I have noticed that many of them had a depressing tone. We don’t always hear the sadness in the lyrics when we are singing the carols with the radio and many renditions do not include all the lines.

If you are grieving this Christmas, you are not alone.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day sings, “And in despair I bowed my head.”

If you are in despair, you are not alone. Sometimes you need a good cry. But you are not crying alone. You may be crying in your pillow of an empty bed wanting a body beside you. You may be weeping watching a love one suffer or thinking of someone who has passed. You may be wondering what the next day has in store and where your next meal will be from.

But you are not alone. No matter how alone you feel, God is with you.

That is the glorious news of Christmas that Christ is with us.

He is with us in the gloomy December’s, in the tear drenched nights, in the hauntingly silent nights. He is with us.

He doesn’t pick and choose when to make an appearance. He doesn’t look at a naughty list. He doesn’t give lumps of coal for bad decisions. He offers grace, mercy, compassion, forgiveness and love.

I wish I could put a smile on everyone’s face, but I have learned that it is okay to cry. Sometimes when you are at your lowest, you can feel God the most.

I hope you feel Him because He is with you now.

So during this season of peace on earth, I hope you do find some peace in the arms of a God who loves you.

Peace

Christmas Is a Coming

Christmas is just a few days away. It is coming whether you are ready or not. This has been a rough year with everything, but you can still make this the best Christmas ever.

You just have to decide that it’s going to be the best.

Self-fulfilling prophecies…it’s not that you are a psychic, but if you tend to think something is going to be bad – it’s going to end up being bad. It’s a fact.

Think of first impressions. It is said that you judge someone after just 10 seconds and that will determine if you will pursue a friendship, offer a job, take their medical advice or see wedding bells in your future.

It is not your first 10 seconds is wrong, but once you made up your mind, it is so hard to change it.

How many times have you said you don’t like a certain food and then try it later to find out that it’s not bad after all?

Many people will not give it another chance even years later, but taste buds change, the recipe you had years ago may have been awful, you might have gotten a rotten apple.

I used to hate cream cheese. I couldn’t stand the thought of cheese cake. And seeing people eat the slice made me curl my nose up in disgust.

But after years of saying I didn’t like it, it tried it again with lots of caramel and chocolate and I found out that I could actually swallow a bite. It’s not something I want to eat often. But if I cover it with enough Oreos, I can eat a dozen Oreo balls without thinking there is cream cheese in it.

My mom would try to fool me years ago. She would make a cake or side dish and ask me, “How does it taste?”

Sometimes I would say, “There is something funny about it.”

Then she would tell me, “There’s cream cheese in it.”

But then she found a few recipes that had so much sweetness that I couldn’t taste the cream cheese. I think she started to look for recipes just to test me. But now I can eat her peanut butter pie with cream cheese.

You may wonder, what is the point?

The point is, I used to think cream cheese was from the devil and I would never touch it. But now I’ve realized that if I eat it with other sweet items it’s not that bad.

The same with 2020. You might think this year has been horrible, but try to mix in a few sweet spots in with the drama. The moments of gathering around the dinner table like a picture perfect family and not rushing to 3 different things in one night. The time spent around a puzzle with your kids that they thought was old school last year. The smiling faces of cabin fever and the pranks and jokes people played on one another. The shopping sprees to Walmart for the necessities as if we were having a blizzard and that feeling when you squeezed the toilet paper in your hands.

This has been a rough year, but there are so many things to be grateful for.

2020 may be like a spoonful of cream cheese for me, but I’ve learned to sprinkle some Reese’s Pieces with it and it’s going to be okay.

So, Merry Christmas!

It’s going to be a great one!

What Child is This?

The Virgin sings her lullaby

Have you ever truly thought, “What made Jesus so special?” We read the Bible and we see the miracles He performed and the amazing acts of love and grace He displayed, but so often we decompartmentalize the God incarnate with the baby Jesus. But they were the same person. Little six second old baby Jesus was the same one who died on the cross for your sins.

I know when I read the Bible so often I read the scriptures for the religious meanings and context, but the book is also a book of history. I’ve heard people say, “Bible characters” all the time and when I hear that I instantly think of other books that are fictional. When you read a biography, do you call the people in there characters? When you watch a documentary or reality television show, do you call the people characters? Most of the time I hear people call them by their names, but I rarely hear someone say “Those characters on Duck Dynasty are hilarious.” They usually say, “Uncle Si is hilarious.”

You may be wondering what I am getting at, but we have to realize that Jesus wasn’t a fictional character who fed the five thousand, walked on the seas, healed the sick, loved the loveless – He was a real man just as Winston Churchill, Jimmy Stewart, Christopher Columbus and Elvis Presley.

When I teach my group of young guys I try to convey to them when we read the book of Philippians Paul was writing it while he was under house arrest or in prison. He was a real man writing a letter to another real group of people in a church in the real city of Philippi. Adding that groundwork to the Bible adds another dimension. It is like when you get a Christmas card from your Aunt Charlene in Boise. She is a real woman who took time out of her day to write a card to you. There is a personal touch from getting something as personal as a letter. In some traditional Christmas cards the writer gives a yearly synopsis of the family. That is what the entire Bible is – a love letter synopsis of God’s workings. The next time you read the Bible, look at the personal touches. Anywhere you read in the Bible you should be able to see them.

So, my question returns, what made Jesus so special? I think the better question may be, what makes Jesus so special?

I always find the missing sections of the Bible the most interesting. What happened between Jesus’ birth and when he was small boy going to the Temple. How was his life as a teenager? What did his friends think of him in his twenties. The gaps we will never know, but I am sure He lived life like the rest of us with one significant different. He lived it sinless.

I believe he experienced the highs and lows that also shadow over us. Did he perform any miracles when he was a child? Who truly knows, because it is stated that the first miracle He performed by turning the water into wine was the first of his ministry in Cana. Did he perform miracles for his family beforehand not to bring glory to the Father? So many mysterious gaps that I find fascinating, but those gaps do not hinder my faith. It’s just intriguing to wonder.

Christmas time is an exceptional season to wonder and ponder. There are so many things that are unknown, so let your mind drift. We have the foundation of Mary and Joseph in a stable in Bethlehem and a few other added insights, but the rest is a wonderful mystery.

One of the mysteries is what was Mary feeling during that night? We can read in Luke 1 what Mary was thinking months before giving birth. But we never read what she was feeling the night of Jesus’ birth.

A beautiful Christmas hymn “What Child is This,” is a stunning telling of Christ birth, then a section fast forwards to His death and then circles back to his birth. When I hear this song, I can picture a movie of the Life of Jesus with sporadic flashbacks of that meek scene in Bethlehem.

There are multiple beautiful lines in this carol, but one that stands out to me is,

The virgin sings her lullaby

This line shows the intimacy that Mary must have been having with her newborn son just as most mothers would be having their first night. I can picture her scared teenage eyes looking in Jesus’ and diving head first in love with her son at that first glimpse, letting all her fears dissolve into his soothing gaze. I can see her smiling and rubbing his little cheeks, counting his little fingers, feeling the stubble of his finger nails. I can imagine her leaning down and kissing the top of his bald or full of hair head. I can close my eyes and see her inhaling that baby smell as the aroma causes her smile.

But most of all, I can see her singing a song to her baby boy as she holds him tightly wrapped in her arms. She could have sung him a traditional Jewish lullaby, or maybe it was a song that her mother sung to her as a young girl, or maybe it wasn’t a song with words, but a soft hum. The wordless hum of exceeding joy mere words could not express.

Whatever she was doing, I can imagine she was recalling all the moments that led her to holding her new born son. The moment when the angel Gabriel came to her and said she would be with child. The moment when she felt the spirit of God rain down on her. The sideways glances she received in the marketplace when an unwed mother started to show a little belly. The worrisome look on her parents faces as they send her to her aunt and uncles home. The hard conversation of telling her future husband, Joseph that she was pregnant. The overwhelming relief when Joseph agreed to wed her. The tiresome journey to Bethlehem as she was on the verge of labor. The terrifying moment her contractions started and the women of her family were miles away. The moment of relief when she heard the first stifled cry of Jesus.

I’ve seen on television shows and movies the first moments mother’s have with their newborns and it seems there is an instantaneous connection that happens. Mothers immediately start to envision what their newborn will grow up to be, dreaming lofty dreams of unbelievable portions. But to a mother, anything is possible for their baby.

I wonder what Mary was dreaming about for Jesus. She had been welcomed by an angel telling her that she was going to bring forth the Messiah that generations of her family had been waiting for. I could see her looking down at her little baby born and dreaming those same big, lofty dreams of him changing the world.

Thirty-three years later she witnessed Him changing the world through his death on the cross. I do not think that is what she was smiling about in that Bethlehem stable. No good mother ever wants to see her child suffer.

Sadly, the dreams and aspirations mothers’ have the first night with their newborns rarely come to pass.

But it is still lovely to dream of the rich life your child will have. Jesus had a full live, reaching the potential he was destined for. It just wasn’t the way Mary had intended.

You may not have reached the potential your mother had for you, but your life isn’t over. The God who opened seas for men to walk can open doors for your next step. The creator who causes sunflowers to move with the sun can cause all the obstacles to fall out of your way. The savior of the world who defeated death with a mere breath can defeat your biggest enemies.

You may think you haven’t reached your potential, but none of us have. We are all striving to reach what God had destined for each one of us. So, if you are struggling, take heart, because you are not alone. If you feel you are at the end of your rope, hold tight, or not – maybe fall into the hand of God who has been holding you since the moment He dreamed of you.

Don’t give up on yourself because there are many people who haven’t given up on you yet. You may not have ever had a mother dream lofty dreams for you the day you were born, but God’s dreams for you are much, much better than someone’s earthly dreams. You may not have ever had a good relationship with your mother, but God loves you more than you could ever know. You may have bitterness and hate for the woman who gave you up, but God never gave you up. He’s still watching over you like a proud dad. Even when you mess up, He’s still there taking snapshots of every thing you ever do, framing them for everyone to see.

When God made you, He stopped what he was doing and took the time to count out every one of your hairs. He looked at the stars and wanted your eyes to twinkle just the same. He found a beautiful shade of sand and wanted your hair to shimmer the same way. You may see just a reflection of a person with a hard life, but God sees his masterpiece.

And I’m pretty sure God was humming when he made you because he was dreaming up some incredible dreams for you to achieve.

And I’m pretty sure, He’s still humming over you – waiting for you to see the limitless future that lies ahead.

The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing. Zephaniah 3:17

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:31