DECEMBER 10 PEACE AT CHRISTMASTIME By Paul Barreca General Director, Fellowship International Mission
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased! (Luke 2:14)
On Christmas Eve, 1865, a prominent Philadelphia clergyman stood overlooking the fields of Bethlehem, hoping the scene would bring peace back to his troubled heart. Pastor Phillips Brooks was discouraged and broken after leading Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia during the Civil War. The grief of President Lincoln’s assassination five days after the war ended was the final blow for Brooks. Weary from years of grieving and loss, he traveled to the Holy Land, hoping to find peace. On Christmas Eve, he borrowed a horse and traveled to Bethlehem, arriving as dusk settled over the fields where shepherds were tending their sheep. Peace overwhelmed him as he recalled the words of Luke 2:14, “on earth peace…” The Bethlehem experience changed the young pastor. He returned home renewed and prepared to minister to others once again. Although deeply touched, he could never fully express what happened to him that night in Bethlehem. Three years later, just before Christmas, he began to recall the feeling of peace that swept over him that night on a Judean hillside. The words for a Christmas Eve song for his congregation flowed from his pen:
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie; Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
The words of this carol are as true and needed today as they were when they were written. Let the peace that Christ brings flood your heart as you celebrate His birth!
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