A Hymn Devotional
And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing!
From an obscure verse in a Christmas hymn comes this calm and reassuring message. In fact, it is too bad that it is a part of a Christmas hymn because it captures very well a sense of fatigue that we all feel from time to time throughout the year.
In our daily struggles, it is easy to forget that we are on a journey. Our life is a journey from beginning to end, from hereafter to hereafter. Unfortunately, we do not travel light. We carry a lot of excess baggage, worrying about things that are much less important that we believe they are, and toiling over tasks that deserve much less of our attention than we give them.
But there is a message we need to hear, not just at Christmas, but all year long. It is good news, hand-carried by God's own messengers to a scared group of shepherds that were working day and night tending their sheep. When they heard this good news, they immediately dropped everything they were doing, everything they had deemed so important, to rush to witness the most important moment of their lives: the birth of the Messiah!
They did not expect the message, nor could they have imagined that they would be the ones chosen to receive it. The task of being a shepherd became a great deal less interesting to them that night. For when the message of good news came, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear, and their lives were forever changed.
Dear Lord,
Thank you for your son, Jesus, and for the great news and glad tidings you sent to us via heavenly angel choirs so long ago. Help us to be mindful of your presence in our lives on our journey to eternal life with you.
For we long for the days
"when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing."
In the name of the Babe of Bethlehem whom we worship all through the year,
Amen.
From the soon to be published "Hymn Devotionals"
Go the The Electronic Hymnal - Main Page
Copyright 2002 Robert K. Lindsey - All Rights Reserved.