Carol Ten: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Enjoy this jazz version of one of my top three favorite Carols...as you listen, let these words soak, simmer, and sit in your soul....sing to your heart ~~

 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.

For Christ is born of Mary and, gathered all above, while mortals sleep, the angels keep 

their watch of wond'ring love. O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth,

and praises sing to God the King,and peace to men on earth.

How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv'n! So God imparts to human hearts

the blessings of His heav'n. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin,

where meek souls will receive Him still the dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born to us today We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

O come to us, abide with us Our Lord Emmanuel

This Carol was meant to be played as jazz in my non-musical opinion.  There are lines in this Carol that stop me every time I sing them.  Words like, "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight."  What hopes do you carry with you to the stable this year?  What fears?  We live in a world where all too often fears ride in the front seat of our lives picking the radio station (to use an image from Elizabeth Gilbert).  Too often our hopes seems like wishful thinking (even foolish).  Why do we spend more time talking about the struggles (which are real), than we do talking about the ways God is still creating/crafting in our lives?

I also love the line that talks about how silently God enters into our lives.  It isn't with clamoring commotion, but in the still small silence of love.  So often, it can be hard for God to get a word in edgewise when we are always filling any space with either the sound of the television or even the visual noise of constantly checking our cell phone.  What...I am in line at the store, I should fill this void with seeing what is going on Facebook?  By the way, I totally resemble that remark!

But it is that final line, for God to abide with us that sinks so deep into my heart.  For me to embrace and be embraced by the here-ness of God not only when I sing these words and goosebumps race up and down my arms...but in the middle of March when I am just trying to get by or the middle of July and I am sweltering or next September when one of my kids will be in high school! (Good Lord, how did that happen??)

The abiding God...that is one of the truths of Christmas.  The abiding God is really what we are preparing with great anticipation to welcome.  Not because God hasn't been in our lives ~ surround and sustaining us ~ but because in the blur of every day, I am not always great at noticing the traces of God's grace.

Listen again...let the soulful jazz sing to our soul as if from the lips of God right next to you.

Prayer: Enter in, O God, even if my heart resembles a teenage bedroom.  Enter in, O God, even to my cluttered soul.  Make Yourself at home, I pray.