Monday Morning Encouragement -- O Little Town of Bethlehem

 

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2

In December 1865 the renowned Episcopalian preacher Phillips Brooks traveled to the Holy Land. On Christmas Eve he attended the five-hour Christmas Eve service at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Of his experience Brooks said, "I remember standing in the old church in Bethlehem, close to the spot where Jesus was born, when the whole church was ringing hour after hour with splendid hymns of praise to God, how again and again it seemed as if I could hear voices I knew well, telling each other of the Wonderful Night of the Savior's birth."

Three years later Brooks wanted to compose a Christmas song for the children of Philadelphia's Holy Trinity Episcopal Church to sing at their annual Christmas program. Recalling his night in Bethlehem, he penned the words to O Little Town of Bethlehem, and gave the lyrics to his organist Lewis Rednor. Although Rednor initially struggled to put music to the lyrics, on Christmas Eve he found great inspiration and wrote the tune. The next day it was sung for the first time.

Phillips Brooks was a great orator and gave the eulogy at Abraham Lincoln's funeral. Late in his life he mentored the famous deaf and blind girl Helen Keller. Brooks and Keller corresponded; in one of her letters to him she wrote: "Please tell me something that you know about God. I like so much to hear about my loving Father, who is good and wise." An excerpt from Brooks' letter of reply reads:

“I love to tell you about God, but He will tell you Himself by the love which He will put into your heart if you ask Him. And Jesus, who is His Son, but is nearer to Him than all of us, His other children, came into the world on purpose to tell us all about our Father’s love. If you read His words, you will see how full His heart is of the love of God. ‘We know that He loves us!’ Jesus says; and so He loved men Himself; and, though they were very cruel to Him and at last killed Him, He was willing to die for them because He loved them so, and, Helen, He loves men still, and He loves us, and He tells us that we may love Him." 

Today's lovely music video is a modern arrangement of the classic Christmas hymn O Little Town Of Bethlehem with lyrics from the album and devotional, "The Soul Felt Its Worth". Arranged and Recorded by Nathan Drake; Written by Phillips Brooks, 1868.

I love you, I'm thinking of you, and I'm praying for you.