Christmas

Christmas The Silent Authors of "Silent Night"
Only by happy coincidence did the names of the true authors of the song "Silent Night" come to light-thirty-six years after they wrote it.
The story begins in 1818 in a church in the little Austrian town of Oberndorf. Shortly before Christmas Eve, a mouse ate a hole in the leather bellows of the church organ, effectively silencing it. The itinerant organ mender was not due in town for months, and music was needed for the Christmas Eve service. In three and one-half hours, Franz Gruber, the organist, composed music for a poem written by Josef Mohr, a priest. It began "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht" ("Silent Night, Holy Night"). On Christmas Eve, the two men sang their composition accompanied by a guitar and children's chorus. They were a great success.
The following May, when the organ mender turned up, Gruber gave him a copy of the song, which the man then circulated in his travels. By 1831, thirteen years later, the Strasser family quartet was billing "Silent Night" one of their numbers, as a Tyrolean folk song by "authors unknown."
Time went by, and soon the now-popular song was being attributed to several famous composers. In 1854, the leader of the king's orchestra in Berlin wrote to the choir director of the Benedictine school in Salzburg, asking for a copy of "Silent Night" by Michael Haydn, brother of the more famous composer Franz Joseph Haydn. The choir director asked a student-who just happened to be Felix Gruber, Franz Gruber's son-to find a copy. And you can guess the rest. A Strange Birthday Celebration
If the following story were not true, it would surely be unbelievable. It is true, however, as you yourself will agree when you have read it.
There was once a great king. His love for his people knew no limits. Although the kingdom was very large, the king knew every person by name. Everything the people of the kingdom had was a gift freely given by the loving king.
So, to show their love and appreciation to the king for all he had done for them, the people decided to have a great celebration to honor his birthday. Everyone agreed it was a marvelous idea. Preparations for the celebration were very elaborate. No expense was spared by the people. They adorned their homes with lights, decorations, and expensive ornaments. There were parties, dinners, and celebrations throughout the kingdom.
All the people brought gifts for their friends and family. Many of the gifts which the people gave each other were quite expensive, involving considerable indebtedness. In fact, the people spent more on the birthday celebration than they spent at any other time of the year.
Many who were not citizens of the kingdom, and who did not even know the king, joined in the celebration. Their celebration of the king's birth was marked by excessive drinking. Since they did not know the king, they invented a good-natured, fat fellow in a red suit. He laughed a lot, but never said anything. But that didn't matter because they were too busy celebrating to listen anyhow.
The great day of celebrating his birth finally arrived, and some of his people did come bringing gifts and thanking him for his goodness to them. But to his dismay, most of the citizens never came to his house at all on the day of celebration. And the gifts brought to the king by those few who came were very meager when compared with the gifts they had given themselves.
For the most part the people said they had been so busy with all the celebrations and personal plans that they had forgotten about the king. Several said they had thought of him, but really could not work it into their schedules or budgets to come see him or bring a gift. A few were known to be quite put out when it was suggested that going to the king's house or remembering him with a gift was important.
Those people who did come to his house and who brought their loving gifts were welcomed and blessed by the king. But when they had gone and he was alone again, the king fell to thinking of the vast numbers of his people who had forgotten and forsaken him. How could they have forgotten? Had he not loved them all? How could so many of his beloved people who had found the time and money for shopping and feasting and partying and decorating and all sorts of celebrations-how could they possibly be so thoughtless, so ungrateful or selfish? Did they not know that he, too, had feelings? Was not the purpose of the birthday celebration originally planned to honor him?
When the king was alone, pondering these questions, he felt the tears well up in his eyes. And in his loneliness, he wept.
One thought brought some hope and consolation. Even though they had forgotten him, he had not forgotten them.

Immanuel
Two missionaries were captured and imprisoned in the same cell but forbidden to speak to each other. Christmas came.
One of the missionaries, shivering and silent, sat on the floor covered with hay. As he was playing with bits of hay around him, he thought that he discovered a silent way of communicating with his friend. He spelled out the word Immanuel. As soon as his friend saw the word, immediately he lit up with joy. They were captives, but they both believed that God was with them and that ultimate triumph would be theirs.
This Christmas let us find a variety of ways of showing to others that God is indeed Immanuel, God with us.

Keep Christ Central in Christmas
It is a principle of art that in the composition of a picture, all the parts shall be so arranged as to lead the eye inevitably to the central figure or feature. Whatever prevents this is a capital defect. Accessories are only important as they help this end.
When Varelst, the Dutch painter, made his tulips so glorious that they drew attention away from the face of James II, in whose portrait he had placed them, he violated this canon. So did Haydon when, in his picture of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he made the figure of the beast on which the Master rode more attractive than the person of Christ.
So does the theologian or the metaphysician or the logician, who fascinates by his argument and rhetoric, or the preacher and liturgist, who stresses his forms of worship and symbols of religion.
It is not the swaddling-clothes of ceremonialism, but the Christ of the simple gospel story consistently lived, that shall span the continents with love and make Christmas perpetual in the heart of man.

Christmas Is Costly
It cost Mary and Joseph the comforts of home during a long period of exile in Egypt to protect the little Babe.
It cost mothers in and around Bethlehem the massacre of their babies by the cruel order of Herod.
It cost the shepherds the complacency of their shepherds' life, with the call to the manger and to tell the good news.
It cost the wise men a long journey and expensive gifts and changed lives.
It cost the early apostles and the early church persecution and sometimes death.
It cost missionaries of Christ untold suffering and privation to spread the good news.
It cost Christian martyrs in all ages their lives for Christ's sake.
More than all this, it cost God the Father His own Son-He sent Him to the earth to save men.
It cost Jesus a life of sacrifice and service, a death cruel and unmatched in history. The Shoemaker's Dream
One of the most beautiful of all Christmas stories was told by the American poet, Edwin Markham, about a cobbler, a godly man who made shoes in the old days. One night the cobbler dreamed that the next day Jesus was coming to visit him. The dream seemed so real that he got up very early the next morning and hurried to the woods, where he gathered green boughs to decorate his shop for the arrival of so great a Guest.
He waited all morning, but to his disappointment, his shop remained quiet, except for an old man who limped up to the door asking to come in for a few minutes of warmth. While the man was resting, the cobbler noticed that the old fellow's shoes were worn through. Touched, the cobbler took a new pair from his shelves and saw to it that the stranger was wearing them as he went on his way.
Throughout the afternoon the cobbler waited, but his only visitor was an elderly woman. He had seen her struggling under a heavy load of firewood, and he invited her, too, into his shop to rest. Then he discovered that for two days she had had nothing to eat; he saw to it that she had a nourishing meal before she went on her way.
As night began to fall, the cobbler heard a child crying outside his door. The child was lost and afraid. The cobbler went out, soothed the youngster's tears and, with the little hand in his, took the child home.
When he returned, the cobbler was sad. He was convinced that while he had been away he had missed the visit of his Lord. Now he lived through the moments as he had imagined them: the knock, the latch lifted, the radiant face, the offered cup. He would have kissed the hands where the nails had been, washed the feet where the spikes had entered. Then the Lord would have sat and talked to him.
In his anguish, the cobbler cried out, "Why is it, Lord, that Your feet delay. Have you forgotten that this was the day?" Then, soft in the silence a voice he heard:
"Lift up your heart for I kept My word.
Three times I came to your friendly door;
Three times My shadow was on your floor.
I was the man with the bruised feet.
I was the woman you gave food to eat,
I was the child on the homeless street."

Christmas Spells Peace
Amid the horrors of World War I, there occurred a unique truce when for a few hours, enemies behaved like brothers.
Christmas Eve in 1914 was all quiet on France's Western Front, from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps. Trenches came within 50 miles of Paris. The war was only five months old, and approximately 800,000 men had been wounded or killed. Every soldier wondered whether or not Christmas Day would bring another round of fighting and killing. But something happened: British soldiers raised "Merry Christmas" signs above the trenches, and soon carols were heard from German and British trenches alike.
Christmas dawned with unarmed soldiers leaving their trenches, though officers of both sides tried unsuccessfully to stop their troops from meeting the enemy in the middle of no-man's land for songs and conversation. Exchanging small gifts, they passed Christmas Day peacefully along miles of the front. At one spot, the British played soccer with the Germans, who won 3-2.
In some places, the spontaneous truce continued the next day as neither side was willing to fire the first shot. Finally, the war resumed when fresh troops arrived, and the high command of both armies ordered that further "informal understanding" with the enemy would be punishable as treason.

Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Charles Wesley of England was without doubt one of the most productive hymn writers and preachers of all time. Yet, strangely enough, Wesley was able to get only one hymn poem into the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer, and that one by error!
An eighteenth century printer didn't know that the "established Church" of England frowned with disapproval upon Wesley's hymns. Since he needed material to fill an empty space in the new hymnal, he took it upon himself to insert a Christmas poem called, "Hark, How All the Welkins Rings!" by an Anglican clergyman named Charles Wesley. When the error was discovered attempts were made to have it removed, but it proved so popular that it was allowed to remain.
It was written in 1738, but is still very moving today.
"Hark the herald angels sing.
Glory to the new born King.
Peace on earth, and mercy mild:
God and sinners reconciled." At Christmas Is Christ Happy Over Us?
"Mommy," asked Jane, "what makes everybody so happy at Christmas?" "Well, because it is the Lord Jesus' birthday...and because we love Him...and because we are happy about His coming to this world."
Jane thought a minute and then said, "Then is the Lord happy about you?" "Oh, little girl, what a question you have asked!"
Is the Lord Jesus happy about us on His birthday? Is he really happy because He sees within our hearts a deep, true love for Him? Does He see a satisfying love and not just a seasonal affection stirred up by the festivities of Christmas? What He wants more than anything else on His birthday is the love of our hearts. Do You Recognize Christ in Christmas?
Not long ago, a professor of psychology in one of our great universities gave a word suggestion test to his class of 40 students. He instructed them to write the word "Christmas," and all the class did so. "Now," said the professor, "right after the word 'Christmas'write the first thought that flashes through your mind regarding that day." When the papers were turned in, such answers were given as "tree," "holly," "mistletoe," "presents," "turkey," "holiday," "carols," and "Santa Claus," but not one had written, "the birthday of Jesus."
As there was no room for the baby Jesus in the inn, there is no room for Him today in the celebration of Christmas. Do Not Weep Over What You Do Not Have But Decorate What You Have
One Christmas Eve, as late Christmas shoppers hurried along the street, a crippled newsboy stood on his crutches offering his papers to the passersby. He looked happy, and his crutches were decorated with evergreens.
One man greeted him with a cheerful smile, "My boy, you surely have the Christmas spirit."
The boy replied "What's the use of putting on a sour face? Sure, I am poor and lame, but that's no reason for looking glum. I won't get presents like other boys at Christmas, but I can have fun, too. So I decorated my crutches just to make them seem special for Christmas."
If we go out to seek joy, it will elude us. If we go out to impart joy, we will find it. This Christmas, whether you have little or much, it makes no difference. It is your attitude that counts. A Christmas Prayer
Then let every heart keep
Christmas within-
Christ's pity for sorrow,
Christ's hatred for sin,
Christ's care for the weakest,
Christ's courage for right.
Everywhere, everywhere,
Christmas tonight! When Christmas Comes
Have you any old grudge you'd like to pay,
Any wrong laid up from a bygone day?
Gather them all now, and lay them away
When Christmas comes.
Hard thoughts are heavy to carry, my friend,
And life is short from beginning to end;
Be kind to yourself-leave nothing to mend-
When Christmas comes.

Some Christian Reminders
May the Christmas cheer remind you of Him who said, "Be of good cheer."
May the Christmas bell remind you of the glorious proclamation of His birth.
May the Christmas carols remind you of the song the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest."
May the Christmas season remind you in every way of Jesus Christ your King.

Open the Gift Package
There was a gift for each of us left under the tree of life 2,000 years ago by Him whose birthday we celebrate today.
The gift was withheld from no man. Some have left the packages unclaimed. Some have accepted the gift and carry it around, but have failed to remove the wrappings and look inside to discover the hidden splendor. The packages are all alike: in each is a scroll on which is written, "All that the Father hath is thine. Take and live!" The Xmas of Christmas
Someone has written that people use Xmas and it means Xhaustion, Xcuses, Xchanges, Xcesses, Xtravagances, Xasperations, Xhibitions and worldly Xcitement. How much better to make the Lord the very center of our Christmas observance. Keep Christ in Christmas!