I was doing some shopping a few days ago and noticed all the Christmas decorations displayed in the shop. Without thinking, I started humming my most favourite Christmas carol, “O Holy Night”. I really love the build up in the song when we sing “Fall on your knees; O hear the Angel voices! O night divine, O night when Christ was born.” I can just imagine the shepherds and wise men who had come to see the baby Jesus falling on their knees in worship before Him on this incredibly divine night. My mind also raced to the prophetic word Isaiah spoke in chapter 9:6, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; And the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
A weary world
And so, as we celebrate Jesus’ birth and as we continue to sing the wonderful carol, we reach the words in the song, “A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices” – I wonder about this line. Certainly, I sense that the world is weary. It seems as if it has been weary for a very long time. Even at the time of Jesus’ birth, the occupation of Israel by the Romans under the rule of Herod, there was a weariness because there was no real peace, even though the Prince of Peace had been born.
