You Heard It Here!

When I was analyzing 'It Came Upon a Midnight Clear', I talked about the atmosphere on the night of Jesus' birth. Today, while reading 'Angels We Have Heard On High',  I found myself thinking on that night again. Particularly the line 'sweetly singin' over the plains... and the mountains in reply... echo back their joyous strains.'

The song itself is self-explanatory, displaying the host of angels that appeared to the shepherds that night. But I got curious and over-analytical as usual. There are many mountain ranges in the country of Israel and to look at a map, it's almost like they create a bowl around the Dead Sea, which Bethlehem is only nineteen miles from. In fact, they almost create the image of a great concert hall. Like the Symphony Hall in Boston, the Hungarian State Opera in Budapest, or the Opera House in Sydney, Australia. Thank about when you were inside a concert hall and that place filled with sound. Couldn't you feel the notes pounding inside you, vibrating the walls with their emotion?

Now picture that, only times twelve! That's what I hear when I think about the angels singing out that night. Their voices shouting so far and so wide that mountains- entire mountains!- answer back because they want the whole world to hear about Jesus' birth. That's what the song comes back to in every verse... the birth of the Savior. The reason for that joy, the reason for the jubilee... the reason for the season!

And the angels were the first to tell people about it. They must have been so excited and breathless, outright bursting with the emotion of the moment. Is that what you feel when you find yourself telling others about Jesus? No better time to start then now!

Merry Christmas!!