Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
Luke 2: 1-7

DIVINE INTENTION
The melodious reed-winds and accompanying strings, with tambourine-marked percussive rhythms, render a Mediterranean sound to Lois Shuford’s Ready My Heart, an Advent tune given voice by Steve Bell. This calm and simple song transports us to the first-century Palestinian setting of Christ’s first advent, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel. That first-century Mediterranean culture is portrayed in an artwork collage created by Rachel Pearsey. Across the top of the piece is depicted a caravan of travelers, robed figures and beasts of burden trekking in observance of the decree of Caesar Augustus that they go to register in their ancestral homes. Luke reports that Joseph traveled from Nazareth in Galilee to register in his Davidic ancestral home of Bethlehem, taking with him Mary, his pregnant fiancée.  The central panel of Pearsey’s collage portrays a thronged narrow street of the little town of Bethlehem crowded with visitors there to register their presence in Caesar’s world. 

It was in this bustling Bethlehem environment that Mary’s pregnancy reached full term. The busy patchwork designs of overlapping visual textures in Pearsey’s hodgepodge seem to portray the hectic situation in which Mary found herself.  In the largest of the collage panels, behind the din of outside throngs, down the stairs to the lantern lit animal chamber, Pearsey has sketched the unwed pregnant teen, enlarged and in anticipatory pain, kneeling near a manger. Here is pictured a noisy and messy beauty. Given Luke’s description of these earthly circumstances, Pearsey aptly titles the collage, It Was Not a Silent Night.

Even as the deceptively lazy melody of Shuford’s tune hides a more complex set of cadences, the busyness of Bethlehem was the backdrop for the entrance of the Savior into the world. And the bridge between the song’s verses builds in musical complexity even as the lyrics build a bridge of application to the life of the listener. Shuford’s peaceful, folksy ballad and Pearsey’s visually noisy artwork help us recall the intensely human first-century setting into which, as Luke would describe Him, the Son of God was born the Son of Man. And the punch line of the song helps us recall that Christ the Savior was born in order that the children of men could be born again as the children of God. 

God used a human world ruler’s intentions to bring about the divine intention for His world. Could it be that God is using the human rulers of your busy world to bring about His intentions for your life? The guestroom was full in the hodgepodge of bustling Bethlehem, but a place was made for Mary to give birth to the Savior.  Have you made room in your noisy life for the Savior to bring new birth to you?
Doug Huffman, Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies

DEAR LORD, We give You thanks and celebrate Your Son’s first advent, being born into a noisy, busy, and messy world. Ready my heart to recognize the possibility that You can be working in my noisy, busy, and messy world. And ready my heart for the work of Your Son to be my Savior who gives new life to me. Amen