BH Bulletin - Monday 7 December 2020

​Thought for the Day by Catharine Currell ​(Families Minister)

Silent night, holy night!
Son of God love’s pure light.
Radiance beams from Thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus Lord, at Thy birth
Jesus Lord, at Thy birt

I expect you have often heard it joked that Jesus’ birth was far from a silent night what with noisy animals, visiting shepherds, to say nothing of the sounds of a woman giving birth and a baby’s first use of his lungs!
 So perhaps the night Jesus was born wasn’t ‘silent’, as such, but considering the world-shaking, epoch-defining, planet-changing nature of what was happening it was very, very quiet.
 
Hebrews 1 describes Jesus like this:
 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
 
The radiance of God’s glory was born into the world and yet somehow the stars restrained themselves from bursting into song! The stones didn’t shout but continued to glorify God by their quiet stoniness despite the LORD our Rock and our Redeemer arriving in flesh and blood! It’s hard to believe that the creation that was stirred into being through him didn’t burn with a furious joy at his coming! Even the shepherd-terrifying shout of the angels outside Bethlehem was pretty restrained considering the circumstances.
 
It was a silent night, a quiet start, a slow reveal.
 
But the news is out now - Christ has come. God’s redeeming grace has dawned. Shout it! Sing it! Cover it with tinsel! But don’t stay silent about Jesus this advent.

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