Stille Nacht

The narrative below is something that I shared with the teenagers in our youth group. Music played while it was being read and it was, if not powerful, at least moving and meaningful. :)

So, if you have enough time (5 or 10 minutes) and are brave enough to tackle it, press the play button on the Imeem player below and let the music set the mood while you read.

Stille Nacht (Silent Night) - Mannheim Steamroller

I guess you could say this story has no beginning. So we’ll start before time began, in eternity, where there is no beginning or end.

Outside of the constraints of our world, in eternity, God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit wrote a story of love that would be contained within a book called "Time".

It was there, before the creation of the world, that the plan was made and the groundwork laid that the Son of God would one day step down into time to save His most treasured possession.

With infinite wisdom and in the power of His sovereign might, God created the heavens and the earth. He started the galaxies swirling and balanced billions of stars in space. He set the solar system spinning in its precise and delicate dance, and held our planet in his hands, making it fit for life. His presence hovered over the waters as He brought forth the land and a myriad of living things. His immortal mind knew that one day He would send His Son here as a Savior.

On the sixth day of creation, he formed the first man from the earth as a potter would form clay. The very elements that comprise the crust of the earth he spun together to form flesh, bone and sinew. This process completed, the Lord of Life breathed into this newly formed body a living spirit. And mankind was born. How strange to imagine that one day in the distant future the very Son of God who helped make man, would become one Himself and in this way become uniquely and intimately connected with His own creation.

It was not long before God completed man by providing him a partner. From the same elements with which He formed the man, indeed from his very side, He drew the necessary elements to create a woman: different, yet one with the man, a perfect complement. A woman, lovingly made to bear new life, and one day it would be a woman who would carry in her womb the Son of the Most High.

In the course of time, the man and woman that God had formed turned their backs on their Creator and disobeyed, to their demise. They stepped out of safety and unleashed a curse of sin and suffering on all who would come after them.

From the time of that first failure, the Fall itself, God asserts His compassion and declares that, though mankind would suffer because of sin, one day a Son of Man would be born that would crush Satan under His feet. God’s story of love was being written and played out.

Through thorny years of turmoil and pain, men and women spread out over the earth. Civilizations grew rapidly. Although men continued to rebel against the Creator, the man Noah feared God and was preserved in the face of destruction in a vessel that foreshadowed the Savior and His redeeming grace. As darkness plagued the earth and the water poured out from above and below, Noah and his family were protected until the sun shone again and painted a promise in the sky.

The chapters of mankind’s history flowed on, and centuries passed. With every new setting and plot twist, God made it known through His prophets that one day, at just the right time in the story, a Redeemer would come.

Many men spoke of Him: Moses and Jacob and David king of Israel, himself a shadow of the coming King. Others, through the Spirit of God, foresaw His advent: Isaiah and Jeremiah, Daniel and Micah, Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi. The words of God within them were glorious and mysterious - they knew with deep excitement and anticipation that their Messiah would come, though they knew not when. Isaiah, moved by the Spirit of God, proclaimed that, "the people living in darkness [would see] a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light [would dawn.]"

At the very sunset of the Old Testament the prophet Malachi spoke. Darkness had come and would last 400 years, but he spoke of the Son, who would "rise with healing in His wings..." And then, finally, the light of the world would dawn.

Four centuries later, a servant of the Lord, a mere girl, saw the first blush of dawn on the horizon. The angel Gabriel, God’s "hero", God’s "strong man", appeared to the meek one Mary and delivered a message that would change her world. It would change the whole world.
The hope of a Savior had not been completely dormant, for there were many faithful who waited patiently for His advent. Indeed, the Spirit of God was stirring even in a child still in the safety of his mother’s womb: when Mary visited her pregnant cousin Elizabeth, no explanation was necessary, for her unborn child leaped for joy within her and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She knew that the long night was almost over.

Three months later, the cousin of Jesus was born and his father Zechariah named him John, and, overcome as Elizabeth had been, he prophesied that "because of the tender mercy of our God...the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness."
The night was fading quickly, dissolving in the spreading light, but there was another night to come. A holy night.

Six months passed and the womb of the young girl Mary was ready to deliver. The baby within was eternal yet he was made from the same dust as the first Adam and vitally connected to his earthly mother, receiving nourishment from her body. And one day He would die because of the rebellion of that first Adam, in order to save from the curse and consequences of sin all those that followed who would believe on Him.

The night was holy, yet not silent for everyone. In Bethlehem the young Mary cried out with pain in childbirth as she delivered the One who would deliver her.

In the nearby countryside, drowsy shepherds were startled by what might have been mistaken as an early sunrise, but as their senses cleared, they discerned a light and presence not of this world. Angels announced to these humble men that the Good Shepherd had finally come. They ran to Bethlehem to see the Child the angels had spoken of.

Bethlehem, which in Hebrew means "the house of bread’, had become the birthplace of the Bread of Life, just as the prophet Micah had foretold.

When Jesus was just eight days old, Joseph and Mary brought Him to the temple in Jerusalem to have Him circumcised and to offer sacrifices for Mary to purify her from the flow of blood during childbirth. It was required by the Law, and she brought two birds because she could not afford a lamb, though in her arms she carried the Lamb of God.

A man was waiting for them there. Simeon was devout and righteous and full of God’s Spirit. And he was old. He had held onto the promise that he would not die before he had seen the Christ, the Messiah. As the young family entered the Temple, Simeon took the child and praised God with the deep and personal words, "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to Your people Israel."

Then his gaze turned from heaven to Mary and he spoke prophetically and powerfully: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul, too."

Though the Savior had come, men would still reject Him. Such is the fallen nature of mankind. But He came to give Himself for His own, and His sheep would hear His voice.

Peace would not come without struggle, cleansing from sin and eternal life would not be possible without the shedding of innocent blood. Just three decades from his birth, this Messiah would endure an excruciating, humiliating, agonizing death. Broken, bruised, contorted and bleeding He would fulfill the plan of God and provide a turning point in the timeless story of our salvation. Darkness would once again cover creation, but only until the morning of the third day . . .

Rising in power and ascending in glory among the same angels that announced His birth, the God-man Christ Jesus promised that He would return.

Even now, Today, He awaits the Father’s command to enter time once more.

The disciple John, one of Jesus’ closest friends and disciples, had of vision of his Savior towards the end of his life:
"His head and hair were like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In His right hand he held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance."

And such is the brilliance all of us who believe in Him and belong to Him will one day behold - the glory of the Creator, the prophesied Messiah, the baby Jesus, the Suffering Savior, the Risen King, the Lamb of God - one day, some day soon, when God writes the final chapter of time and we begin an eternity of life with the Author of salvation.