TerryLema

One last look at Christmas songs this morning. While I love the old carols, there is one new song that I find absolutely amazing. The words were written by Mark Lowry, a Christian singer and comedian. The music was written by Buddy Greene, who usually plays a harmonica.

The song is simply a series of questions for Mary.

“Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water … That your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters … That your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you?”

That was just verse one. The other two verses ask even more profound questions. “Mary, did you know … When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God … That your Baby Boy is LORD of all creation … that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations … That your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb? The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great, I Am”

I do not know just how much Mary did know. She knew her baby was different, that His conception was miraculous. I am sure she remembered all the angel told her about Him.

Did she understand it all? Probably not. The greatest theologians who have studied for decades cannot really say they understand it all. It is a Glorious Impossible!

“Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow—of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth—and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” [Philippians 2:5-11 HCSB]

Amen & Amen

“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.”

Little Bethlehem.  Rachel was buried there.  Ruth met Boaz there.  David was anointed there.  And Micah prophesied that “though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times . . ..  He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.  And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.  And he will be their peace.”  [Micah 5;1-5]

Little Bethlehem.  The hopes and fears of all the years were brought together one night in little Bethlehem.  The words of the prophet were fulfilled when a young woman gave birth to a son, a son whose origins are from old, from ancient times.  She would call Him Jesus, and He would become the apex of time and eternity.

Little Bethlehem.  To this little town would come the King of all the ages, the Everlasting One who would sit on David’s throne to rule the nations, the Son of God, Son of Man.  All that had come before looked forward to this King; all that would come after would look back to Him.

“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light.  The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”