Scripture for Today:Matthew 13:16 “Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.”

I never quite understood the symbolism in the carol, Do You Hear What I Hear, until I looked at its history.  It was written in 1962 by a couple named Noel and Gloria Regney.  Each stanza asks the question and the conversation is not resolved until the end where the king declares that all people should pray for peace and that the Child born would give us goodness and light.

This carol was written as a prayer for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis.  Knowing that gives new meaning to the “star” that is seen in the sky with a “tail as big as a kite,” and the so-called song above the trees with a “voice as big as the sea.”  I love that the carol uses the lamb as a picture of innocence.  But for each of the images in the carol, there is a corresponding spiritual truth!

The star can also be seen as the star of Bethlehem heralding Christ’s coming and the birth of hope.  Jesus was called the Lamb of God, His sacrifice taking away our sin.  As the song says this Child, “will bring us goodness and light.”  And the Lord did just that!  John declares that God is light (I John 1:5) and David affirms that His goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives (Psalm 23:6).

Not everyone sees.  Not everyone hears.  The message of Christmas is so often lost in the beautiful distractions of the season.  I want to keep my focus on the Giver of goodness and light.  Do you hear His invitation to, “come and see?” (Psalm 66:5)  Do you see Jesus for who He really is; God’s only Son?

Lord, keep me seeing and listening for You.