Silent Night ~ Time-Warp

We have hopped back and forth during past Christmases between Brett's folks and my family. This year we get to have both!

It has been fun to anticipate this coming weekend and our family seeping into every corner of the house.  I love the promise of a full house:  sitting cheek to cheek (to cheek to cheek) around the dining room table, bumping into each other as we bustle around in the kitchen, squeezing onto the couch for a movie and every bed filled (with an air mattress, for good measure).  I can barely contain my excitement!

One little bit that I will miss this year, which we have enjoyed during other past Christmases at Grammy & Gramps's house, is sitting around the front room, lighting candles and singing carols together as Gramps plays the piano.  Some of my very favorite Christmas snapshots of the kids are their sweet faces illuminated in the glow of the candles.

Like this one from a few years ago ...

The kids near the German Christmas Pyramid,
watching the fans spin the characters around and around.

During this sweet tradition, we sang a number of songs including "Silent Night".  Hearing the kids' delightful voices singing the familiar verses was a treasure.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this would be the first of hundreds of times that we would sing that particular song over the course of the next seven months.  Every night until mid-July, Aaron requested "Silent Night" as his bedtime song.  Mid-July.

Those many, many, many (many, many, many) opportunities to sing the carol allowed me time to truly hear the words.

Silent night, holy night!
All is calm, all is bright.
Round yon Virgin, Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.


Silent night, holy night!
Shepherds quake at the sight.
Glories stream from heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia,
Christ the Savior is born!
Christ the Savior is born.


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

While there are a number of truths in this song, the one that shines out to me today is the declaration of Jesus's Lordship that began when He was born.  Not because of anything He had done or would do, but because of Who He is.  The  Son of God, the chosen Messiah, the Savior, the Lord of Lords ... because God said so.  

And with Jesus's birth as Lord, He ushered in a new era.  The era of grace.  The grace we live in today.