WEEK THREE | DAY FIVE | MICAH 5:2
When visiting Bethlehem, American pastor Phillips Brooks attended a Christmas Eve carol service at the site where Jesus was said to have been born. Inspired, he wrote this poem a few years later (1868) and asked his church organist, Lewis Redner, to put it to music.
O LITTLE TOWN OF BETHLEHEM,
HOW STILL WE SEE THEE LIE!
ABOVE THY DEEP AND DREAMLESS SLEEP
THE SILENT STARS GO BY.
YET IN THY DARK STREETS SHINETH
THE EVERLASTING LIGHT;
THE HOPES AND FEARS OF ALL THE YEARS
ARE MET IN THEE TONIGHT.
HOW SILENTLY, HOW SILENTLY
THE WONDROUS GIFT IS GIVEN!
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.
Just five miles from Jerusalem, Bethlehem was a relatively ordinary town by human standards, but chosen by God as the birthplace of the Savior. God uses ordinary things, places and people for His purposes. Fulfilling our hopes, dispelling our fears, the everlasting Light of Christ shines bright, illuminating our path as we participate in God’s mission. As you pray and reflect today, give thanks for the Savior who chose to be born in an ordinary place and who chooses to save ordinary people. Thank God for creating you so uniquely and for inviting you to play a role in His extraordinary mission to the world.
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