O Holy Night

My very favorite Christmas carol is O Holy Night. In fact, I love it so much I count it as one of my favorite songs of all time. There is something about it that brings me into a spirit of worship every time I hear it, no matter where I am and even no matter what time of year it is. I was looking at the lyrics for it this morning and, though most people are very familiar with verses 1 & 3, it was something from verse 2 that struck me.

The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;

In all our trials born to be our friends.

He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger.

A few weeks ago in staff prayer we were talking about what makes Christianity different from world religions. One of the things we came up with was that God came to earth in human form. In most religions, gods sit high above the people, ruling them from afar. But God took on a flawed and imperfect physical body to save the world...one that was susceptible to pain and suffering...one that would feel the beatings, feel the thorns in His head and the nails in His hands and feet.

And it all began with the babe in the manger.

Hoss