WHEN ANGELS SING

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé 

 

This week, I told Michael that a particular Christmas carol, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” was repeatedly playing in my heart and head. We reread its words, and Michael said,

 

“This is the Christmas theme we have been looking for! We will write about it as we celebrate Christmas with our readers.”

 

What a beautiful choice!

 

Michael and I are going back to 1849 for our inspiration regarding this important Christmas blog. For this was the date that the Christmas carol, “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear,” was written.

In turn, its lyricist, Edmund H. Sears, went back much further for HIS inspiration  He traveled, in his mind’s eye, all the way back, almost 1900 years before his time, to the first Christmas and, in so doing, penned words so moving, eloquent and timely as to resonate in our world today. What this wordsmith wrote for his generation transcends time and place. It could not be more relevant; it could have been written in 2022. In some ways, it is rewritten every time we celebrate Christmas with the singing of this song.

 

We will present in all caps, the words of this masterful carol, interspersing Michael’s and my narrative about its various lines in regular script.

 

Join us, now, as we go back to a stable and manger in Bethlehem and to the nearby fields and shepherds. It is 2,000 years ago and Jesus, the darling of Heaven, has just been born in Bethlehem. From the streets of gold in his Heavenly home, he has arrived on Earth where he is lying on straw placed in a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. The lyrics of the carol begin…

 

IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR

THAT GLORIOUS SONG OF OLD

 

It was a SONG OF OLD. Jesus’ birth was foretold long before it happened in the Old Testament Books of Isaiah and Micah. 

 

FROM ANGELS BENDING NEAR THE EARTH

TO TOUCH THEIR HARPS OF GOLD

 

The NLT says there was a “vast host…the armies of heaven.” (Luke 2:13). So, certainly, there were many thousands of angels, all full of light! How unspeakably magnificent! 

 

PEACE ON THE EARTH, GOOD WILL TO MEN

FROM HEAVEN’S ALL GRACIOUS KING

THE WORLD IN SOLEMN STILLNESS LAY

TO HEAR THE ANGELS SING

 

STILL THROUGH THE CLOVEN SKIES THEY CAME

 

The best image for us to picture the thousands of angels is that, literally, Heaven opened and the skies parted! They parted to shepherds, the profession on the lowest rung of that society. The clear theological message was then, and is today, that Jesus came for everyone.

 

WITH PEACEFUL WINGS UNFURLED

 

These angels celebrate and come in peace toward mankind, even those whose lives have missed the mark – no, ESPECIALLY those whose lives have missed the mark. 

 

AND STILL THE HEAVENLY MUSIC FLOATS

O’ER ALL THE WEARY WORLD

 

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you are WEARY and burdened, and I will give you rest…rest for your souls.” (emphasis added), Matthew 11:28,29) NIV

 

ABOVE ITS SAD AND LONELY PLAINS

 

Michael and I think that C.S. Lewis said it so well:

 

“It is winter in Narnia,” said Mr. Tumnus, “and has been for ever so long…always winter, but never Christmas.”

 

Now, this carol describes a very different world. Now, it is Christmas on Earth! 

 

THEY BEND ON HOVERING WING

 

Once again, these angels bend. In other words, they were downwardly mobile. Heaven BENT down to lift humanity up.

They were on HOVERING WING. They were available, particularly the Archangel Michael and Gabriel.

 

AND EVER O’ER ITS BABEL SOUND

THE BLESSED ANGELS SING

 

Contrast Babel, where man’s languages were confused, with the angels’ glorious music!

 

ALL YE BENEATH LIFE’S CRUSHING LOAD

WHOSE FORMS ARE BENDING LOW

WHO TOIL ALONG THE CLIMBING WAY

WITH PAINFUL STEPS AND SLOW 

 

LOOK NOW FOR GLAD AND GOLDEN HOURS

COME SWIFTLY ON THE WING

O REST BESIDE THE WEARY ROAD

AND HEAR THE ANGELS SING

AND HEAR THE ANGELS SING

 

When the angels sing, filling the sky with the light of hope for everyone, there is a complete reversal of mankind’s future. The last stanza of this iconic Christmas carol tells of this:

 

FOR LO! THE DAYS ARE HASTENING ON

BY PROPHET BARDS FORETOLD

WHEN WITH THE EVER CIRCLING YEARS

COMES ROUND THE AGE OF GOLD;

WHEN PEACE SHALL OVER ALL THE EARTH

ITS ANCIENT SPLENDORS FLING

AND THE WHOLE WORLD GIVE BACK THE SONG

WHICH NOW THE ANGELS SING

 

In five days we officially celebrate Jesus’ birth, the remembrance of the midnight clear in Bethlehem, the sky full of thousands of angels’ song and the world, so broken, awaiting its deliverance.

 

Michael and I wish you a blessed and beautiful Christmas, a glorious time with family and friends and the remembrance of that cold and clear night when Heaven came down to Earth. For now we can say, “Yes, it is winter, but, hallelujah, it is also Christmas!