The Dawn of Redeeming Grace!

The original paper found with Silent Night or Stille Nacht which Mohr and Gruber penned that night so many years ago.

Did you know that in 1939 Montgomery Ward assigned Robert May the task of coming up with a story for a coloring book that they would sell in their store. Out of that assignment came "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer" and later came the song we know and love. Did you know that a thirteen year old boy named Jimmy Boyd was the first to sing "I Saw Mama Kissin' Santa Claus" in 1952? This song topped the charts two years in a row during the Christmas season. It was banned by the Catholic Church for being too suggestive until young Jimmy went to the Bishop of Boston and the next year the ban was lifted. Because of instant access to information on the net, even I am able to find this kind of trivia about some of these songs we know and love. I also loved to read about the beloved Christmas hymns that fill the air this time of year.

I read today of the history of Silent Night which was a poem written by Joseph Mohr in 1816 but was put to music by Franz Gruber in 1818 when Mohr went to his little apartment in Orberndorf, Austria to have his poem made into a song he could present that night for midnight mass. Because the organ in the church was not working the composer grabbed his guitar to pick out the melody and eventually hummed the beautiful song we love to sing every year. The song originally "Stille Nacht" became popular throughout Europe but finally worked it's way to America and became Silent Night!

As I looked at the lyrics of this beloved song, I think of the wondrous night that would have been, the miracle of new life as thrilling as that is, could not match this night. In the first stanza my mind can picture the Silent Night, the Holy Night.

Silent night, Holy Night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace!

But in the second stanza it is anything but silent! It is the record in Luke that describes the angels that came to the shepherds announcing the birth of Jesus!

Silent night, holy night,
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar,
Heav'nly hosts sing Alleluia;
Christ the Savior is born;
Christ the Savior is born.

God in his loveliness had chosen lowly shepherds to be the first hearers of the good news. If I had lived back then I may have very well been counted among this motley crew! How blessed they must have felt to receive such an honor. How humbled I am that God sent His good news to me in my sinful state. Grace came down to the shepherds then as it comes down to us even now.

Silent night, holy night,
Son of God, love's pure light.
Radiant beams from Thy holy face,
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth;
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.

Praise God for that dawn of redeeming grace!
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth;
Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth;

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.

Luke 2:13-14

Sent from Jeanie!