This edition of “Friday Evening” will be the final F.E. of 2007. The next F.E. will be sent out on Friday, January 4, 2008. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a forward-looking, blessing-filled New Year!

 

Room in My Heart

Tom Barnard

 

“I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”

(John 10:10)

 

Emily E. S. Elliott was the daughter of Edward Bishop Elliott, Rector of St. Mark’s Anglican Church in Brighton, England. She was born on July 22, 1836 and died on August 3, 1897. She never married. In terms of success, she was not a pace-setter. She was not known as a great hymn writer, either, but she wrote one very special hymn that is sung in churches around the world during Advent even today. She had an interest in helping children learn, serving for a time as editor of The Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor, a guide for teachers of children.

 

The Sunday School Movement in England was enormously successful in the early 19^th Century. Begun by Robert Raikes (1736-1811), the movement was designed to help children learn how to read and write; the primary curriculum was the Bible. By the time Emily Elliott was born, approximately 25% of England’s children were enrolled in the home-based Sunday schools for which Raikes had crusaded. She eventually participated in the efforts to expand the education of England’s children—especially children living in poverty.

 

One song that Emily wrote that still impacts church music wherever hymns are sung—especially during Advent—begins with these lines:

 

Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown when Thou camest to earth for me;

But in Bethlehem’s home there was found no room for Thy holy nativity.

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus—there is room in my heart for Thee!

 

As you approach Christmas Sunday and beyond, be sure to make room in your heart for Him.

 

Heavenly Father, my heart is drawn in a hundred different directions during the Christmas Season. I have work to do, shopping to finish, travel plans to complete, gifts to wrap, food to prepare, mail to read, social events to attend, and church services to plan. It is easy to forget that the most important preparation to make is in my heart—for family, for friends, for colleagues, and—for Jesus. Remind me today and in the days ahead to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Jesus. And, most important of all, remind me to make room for Him in my heart—today, tomorrow, the day-after-tomorrow, and beyond the tomorrows. In his Blessed Name I pray, Amen.