Welcome to a special Christmas Edition of “Friday Evening” and “Tuesday Morning.” Both are being sent to you and yours as a Christmas Gift from Tom and Madelyn Barnard.

 

For the first time in many years, Oklahoma is experiencing a White Christmas. Snow began falling in the Panhandle of the State early on Christmas Eve morning. Winds from the North and West picked up, and with temperatures in the low teens and moisture being drawn from the gulf, snow blew across the state all day and well into the night. Some stretches of the state’s highways and roads were closed for periods of time. Hundreds of travelers were stranded. Will Rogers World Airport was closed to air traffic for most of the day and night. More than a foot of snow fell in Oklahoma City—an all-time record one-day snowfall. Churches cancelled their Christmas Eve services. Most families were forced to stay inside instead of celebrating the Eve of Christ's birth by attending church services with neighbors and friends.

 

But this is Christmas! It’s time to sing again. The theme for this week is the “Angels’ Song” from Luke 2. What was it that they sang?

 

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

 

And to whom did they sing it? Statesmen? Kings? Princes? The rich and famous? Scholars? The powerful? No. They sang to none of these. Then to whom? They sang to the lowly, the simple, the disenfranchised, the poor, and the dirty. They sang to shepherds! They announced to them the birth of a baby in Bethlehem. They sang of a Savior—Christ the Lord. It is that song that we sing today. Christ has come. Rejoice.

 

Our Christmas Greeting to you is attached below. Read on whenever you are ready. And then sing!

 

The Banard's

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The Angels’ Song

Tom Barnard

 

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

(Luke 2:14 NKJV)

 

he sound of the blast-off was slightly delayed because of the distance from the actual tower. It was December 7, 1972, and it was the first night-time launch of a manned space craft. Jack Needleman was one of the reporters covering the historic launch. He reported that at lift-off the space craft “seemed to have become a star as it carried three men bound for glory.” Needleman concluded, “Men’s eyes were filled with light, their mouths wide open, and their faces lit by the inner glow of sheer wonder.”

 

If that was the reaction of reporters that had witnessed dozens of earth-shaking events in their lifetimes, think what it must have been like for the shepherds who were quietly tending their sheep when an Angel and a chorus of angels suddenly appeared to them to announce the Savior’s birth. The shepherds had never seen anything like it in their lifetimes.

 

In a word, what the shepherds experienced was wonder. Lloyd Stilley described wonder this way: “A sense of wonder comes when our expectations are exceeded. Wonder is being astonished at the fantastic, jolted by splendor. It is the byproduct of being in the presence of something that takes your breath away.”

 

We live in a “been-there, done-that” culture. Hollywood has turned the spectacular into normal. Do you remember the “Wizard of Oz” motion picture? Can you recall the feeling you had when the “yellow-brick road” splashed on the screen in brilliant color? The 1939 edition of “Oz” was produced in black-and-white, and Color. Technology was not anything like today’s technology. But the contrast between the familiar black-and-white and color in that movie was stunning, making it unforgettable to all who saw it.

 

The lives of the shepherds were changed in an instant. It took a few minutes for them to realize that the residents of Bethlehem hadn’t seen what they saw. Otherwise, people would be running from house to house to ask, “Did you hear the angels singing? What is going on here?” After the angels disappeared, the night returned to being silent again. “Can we go and find the baby?” a shepherd boy asked his father. “Please, Papa, can we go and see this thing that has happened?” Hastily, the shepherds agreed on who would go and who would stay to watch the flock. Luke tells us that they hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby asleep in a manger.

 

The song the angels sang is the third of four songs we celebrate at Advent. Mary’s Song and Zechariah’s Song preceded the appearance of the angel and the angel chorus. The first two songs came to people chosen by God—persons with a lineage. The Song of the angels came to nobodies. Shepherds were even restricted from attending the synagogue, because by nature their work made them ritually unclean. They were society’s outcasts. But God placed them squarely in the midst of history that night near Bethlehem.

 

In Chicken Soup for the Soul, author Dan Millman tells the story of Sachi. When she was four, her baby brother was born. Sachi asked her parents if she could be left alone with her new brother for a few minutes. Like most parents, her mom and dad were reluctant to do this. They were fearful that an accident might occur if they were not close by. Eventually, her parents relented and told her she could be alone with him in the bedroom. But the parents were not far away. They shut the door to the bedroom, but left the door ajar—just so they could observe from a distance and see if everything was safe for both children. They saw Sachi walk quietly to the baby’s bed, put her face close to his, and say, “Baby, tell me what God feels like. I’m starting to forget.” (p. 283)

 

Christmas is a time when we can draw close to God and feel his Presence near us and worship and praise Him. It is a time for us to wonder and be amazed. It is a time to allow the Spirit of Christ to whisper hope and peace to our troubled hearts. Christ has come. It’s time to sing again. Merry Christmas!

 

Thank you for reading this combined publication of “Friday Evening” and “Tuesday Morning” for December 25 and 29, 2009. This will be the final publications of these two issues for 2009. The next publication will be Friday, January 1, 2010.