Christmas music is a comforting and catalyzing part of the Christmas season for me. I find it interesting to reflect on the words and imagine the circumstances that led to particular lyrics. For the first time, this year, I thought about "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." I'd never realized how much the song talked about peace and hearing God's message. It seems I hear so much about the Iraq "war" that my mind is distracted from the good news, and when I heard these lines, I felt that someone else had thought the same thing
Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long,
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong.
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love song which they bring
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.
The third and fourth verses of the song alude to some kind of prophetic hope - I don't entirely understand it, but I want it, and I want to be able to extend that kind of hope to those who toil "with painful steps and slow." What are those "glad and golden hours"?
There's more great Christmas music and more yet to be written. I love the rich stuff.
"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear." Words by Edmund H. Sears, music by Richard Storrs Willis.
1 comment:
Kate!
Good to hear from you.
The song says to me, also, that even in the most bitter battle, there is joy to be heard. The trouble is, as you said, that sometimes we can't hear it because of the strife. I think the strife the author is talking about here is specifically war, which no one can ignore. Singing Christmas songs about "peace on earth, good will to men," during times of war is an act of faith and hope.
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