All Is Calm, All Is Bright (Part 1)

Part 1 of a 3-Part Advent Series

Lately my daughters have filled our home with the joyous sounds of Christmas carols on the piano. One of their favorite songs to play is “Silent Night.” It is a beautiful and familiar song, one that we all know and love. However, some of the words describing the birth of Jesus are rather comical to me. “Silent night, holy night! All is calm, all is bright.” I have had the pleasure of giving birth to two babies, and I am not so sure I would use the same lyrics to describe my two experiences. Both birthing experiences were certainly bright thanks to all of the high-powered hospital lights, but there was nothing silent or calm about either experience! Thankfully, it doesn’t really matter if the night of Jesus’ birth was physically silent or calm or bright, but what does matter immensely is that the coming of that little baby boy on the first Christmas was the beginning of the greatest calm and brightness the world could ever imagine.

To be calm is to be peaceful, unruffled, unflustered, or untroubled. It is easy to be calm when our circumstances are calm, but how often are our circumstances actually calm? We have work to do, children to raise, parents to check on, dinner to cook, meetings to attend, and church obligations to fulfill. During the Christmas season, we have trees to decorate, presents to buy, people to see, difficult family members to face, and parties to attend. How can we possibly be calm when all of these things are on our minds? How can we be calm when our schedules are full and our lives are crazy? What (or Who) is the source of our calm?

Let’s take a look at how the Apostle John addresses those pressing concerns:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-5, 9-14)

John 1 is not usually the first place we look when we want to read the Christmas story, but it is full of the rich theology surrounding our Savior’s birth. It tells us so much about who Jesus is – that he is eternal, that he is God, that he was involved with creation, and that he is the light of the world. John sets up this grand picture of who Jesus is and then says he became flesh and dwelt among us. When we read the other narrative accounts of Jesus’ birth through this lens, we see a much bigger picture than a sweet baby lying in a manger. We see Jesus for who he really is – God in human flesh. We see all power and all authority wrapped up in a humble baby.

John calls Jesus the Word. The fact that Jesus is the Word is the reason we can be calm during this Christmas season and in every other season. The Word is what created order out of nothing in the very beginning; it’s what created everything and everyone we see around us. God simply said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. The Word is what healed the blind and raised the dead. Jesus simply said, “Lazarus, come out,” and he did. The Word is what calmed the raging sea:

“One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side of the lake.’ So they set out, and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, ‘Master, Master, we are perishing!’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, ‘Where is your faith?’ And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, ‘Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?’” (Luke 8:22-25).

The very Word that created the wind and the waves has the power to calm them. The very Word that created you and me has the power to calm our hearts. When we see Jesus as the Word, our hearts can truly sing, “All is calm, all is bright.”