If you Have a Silent Night

It is very silent here right now, late at night.  Well, actually early morning…

The lights of the Christmas tree glisten with ethereal magic behind me.  Those lights dance and reflect off of ribbons and papers strewn across the floor, for Santa has already come and unloaded his bundles right here in our living room you know!

It was a wonderful night!- not silent at all. It was filled with the noise of music, talking, children playing, laughter, with family singing, even shouting at moments over delightfully competitive Christmas games!  We listened and watched as the children performed a noisy Nativity, then continued our sacred Christmas Eve night with The Nativity online, and dear Grandpa Atwood’s recorded reading of Luke 2.

It was everything anyone would ever want Christmas to be!

And then my brother read this poem he had written about a silent night as he served our country, far from home:

 

Once more a silent Christmas

No laughter fills the air

No carols sweet and tender

Lull away my ev’ry care.

 

Once more a silent Christmas

No children throwing snow

No stories of the reindeer

No jolly “Ho, Ho, Ho!”

 

Once more a silent Christmas

Once more no silent snow

Will grace the ground that all around

Might see its Christmas glow.

 

This once more silent Christmas;

The fourth in line for me

Without the holly on the door,

Without a Christmas tree.

 

Once more no crackling of a fire

Once more no merry bells

Once more no sweet aroma

Those wondrous Christmas smells!

 

Once more a silent Christmas

Stirs my heart to reminisce

But in my soul the sacred silence

Stirs much more than this

 

This silent Christmas once more

Makes me ponder things sublime

That must have taken place that night;

The greatest of all time!

 

That first sweet, silent Christmas

On which Peace first knew its Prince

On which darkness first retreated

To The Joy that’s spread e’er since.

 

That quiet humble night on which,

Though bells did not sing out,

A Mother did.  Her song:

a soothing, sacred hymn, no doubt.

 

And save her simple voice

And distant bleating of a flock,

Nothing but the sound

Of Mary’s newborn, Ageless Rock.

 

The truest sound of Christmas:

His calming, still small voice

Reminding souls throughout the earth

That each must make their choice.

 

So, though I love a carol

And merry revelry,

May Silent Christmas Eves FOREVER

speak more truth to me.

 

I thought of one of the houses I had visited this evening, to drop by a cheerful little gift.  It was silent.  Dark.  Like His light had been extinguished there.  It even looked haunted.  I hurried up, knocked, then set my little plate of Christmas cookies the children had made on the table by the door.  I wondered for her, the woman who lived there, and I worried for her.

I drove a friend to work today.  I asked her plans.  Again, silent -even empty.  No special dinner, she could not afford the ham she wished for, or any special food right now.  No gifts to give or exchange.  No music or activity or even scripture reading planned for Christmas day.  A silent day for her.

And then I thought of those far, far from home.  I thought of the stories my brother had told me of boring, extremely hot days, of terrifying shootings and bombings so frequently nearby, of friends lost innocently in the line of fire, of new friends found there, of mourning and of miracles, and now of the silent nights he had experienced on Christmas Eve. 

Then I thought of the Savior, born on a very silent night, somewhere far away, with only a manger for a bed.

And I realized those who are in silence, if you are experiencing silence tonight, those who are homeless or helpless or hurting, those who are lonely or lost or in need of a little light, those who are tired, or hungry, or thirsty, and wishing for food tonight, those who are sorry, or sinking, or simply hoping for salvation for one, can turn to find Him in it, that is when He comes.

Yes, He is there on those rich, rejoicing, happy, harmonious, celebratory family nights!  But He is even more to be found in our helpless, hurting, haunted, just trying-to-keep-hoping hours.

He is there on your silent nights.

Yes, a silent night may be the time you are most inclined to turn and see the Savior, Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas Eve to you all on this silent night, and…

 

I wish you all a glorious Christmas morning!– filled with the joyful, rejoicing noise you make in your soul when you find Him!!

 

Most Sincerely, CaMarie