
One thing I have learned through the years is that when things look the bleakest, God is working His greatest miracle. Many times, we can’t see what He’s doing, but He has a way of stretching our faith and giving us hope when the storm clouds lift.
In 1818, a crisis was brewing in Oberndorf, Austria, a tiny alpine village. Josef Mohr was the new village priest, and the church organ had broken down. It was December 23, and the next day he was expected to hold the Christmas Eve liturgical service. How could the people worship without their magnificent organ? But a repairman couldn’t be hired until after Christmas Day. He didn’t know what to do.
At the time, a roving band of actors was performing in towns throughout the Austrian Alps. Because the church organ was out of commission, the actors presented their Christmas drama in a private home. The amateur actors put on a beautiful re-creation of the simple birth of Christ. After watching the presentation, Mohr was moved by the play and decided to take a longer route home. The longer path took him up a hill overlooking the village.
As Mohr watched the lights twinkle in the distance and took in the majestic silence of that winter night, he began to reflect on a poem that he had written several years earlier in 1816. The poem, which he called “Stille Nacht,” was about the night when angels announced the birth of the Messiah to the shepherds who watched their flocks on a hillside. Mohr thought that the words for his poem might make a good carol for the congregation to sing at the Christmas Eve service.
The next morning, Mohr took the poem to his organist, Franz Gruber, who quickly wrote a melody for the hymn that he could play on his guitar. That Christmas Eve, instead of the resounding tones of a magnificent organ, the sweet melody of a guitar, a girls’ choir and the two men debuted the song we know today as “Silent Night.” Its message and melody are still touching hearts today. But it was born through the agony of a young priest’s crisis. What a faith moment!
Christmas can be full of faith moments. Don’t let a hectic schedule distract you from what God is doing in your life right here, right now.
By Vonette Bright
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