Hark! What Great News!

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we are bombard by Christmas music at every turn. I have nothing against Christmas music - in fact, I love it! My only fear that all too often, we hear these songs so much that they no longer hold any meaning. One of my favorite Christmas hymns is "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". It may have begun simply because it's the final song on the movie, It's a Wonderful Life - but as I've grown, I've come to love this song because of the truth it proclaims. I want to encourage you to read the words to this classic carol- not sing them in your head. Sometimes we sing so quick the words don't have time to move from our mouth to our heart.

Hark the herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled"
Joyful, all ye nations rise
Join the triumph of the skies
With the angelic host proclaim:
"Christ is born in Bethlehem"
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Christ by highest heav'n adored
Christ the everlasting Lord!
Late in time behold Him come
Offspring of a Virgin's womb
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see
Hail the incarnate Deity
Pleased as man with man to dwell
Jesus, our Emmanuel
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings
Ris'n with healing in His wings
Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
"Glory to the newborn King!"

When Jesus was born, He brought peace. Not an end to war, strife, famine, or trouble. Peace with God. No longer are God and man separated by the great chasm of sin because Jesus came to close that gap. He came to offer the most precious peace we could ever desire.

"And He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD His God. And they will remain, because at that time He will be great to the ends of the earth. This One will be our peace . . . " - Micah 5:4-5a 

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 5:1

Israel had been awaiting their Savior for hundreds of years. They experienced 400 years of complete silence from the LORD in which no prophet spoke. But when the time was right - in God's perfect time - the Savior came. The Immanuel - God with us. The presence of God among men. 

"But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons." - Galatians 4:4-5 

"'Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,' which translated means, 'God with us'." - Matthew 1:23

When the Savior came, He came not as man had expected. He laid aside His privileges and glory as God Almighty and became a man. Born just like any other human child. His birth means that we no longer have to be separated from the Father; His birth has brought us new life. 

"Although He [Christ Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men." - Philippians 2:6 

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come." - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Praise be to God for His abundant, steadfast, never-changing love! His love that was so great that He became a baby for us - to bring us peace with Himself. How can we not joyfully proclaim this truth every day - whether it's December or August?