Bethlehem

Let’s go to Bethlehem and see
this thing that has happened.
               —Luke 2:15

Christmas season is a reminder of the Bethlehem-happening.

I was drawn to a group of caroling children at the mall. Cherubic faces scrubbed, they had come to sing. And did they ever sing! What was lacking in harmony was made up in volume. “O little town of Bethlehem,” they screeched . . .

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by;
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light;
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight.
—Phillips Brooks

These pint-size performers know next to nothing about New York, Paris, or London. But they know about Bethlehem. May their tomorrow’s adult lives match their today’s childlike faith.

Hopes fulfilled and fears finished
with the coming of Jesus.

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