There's something beautifully magical about a silent winter night. I've been out in quite a few--well, at least it was still dark, because thanks to Daylight Savings Time I had to go outside and wait for the bus before the sun even dared peek over the horizon. And since I was so eager to get away from home, I was always the first to the bus stop. Standing there alone on an icy street for about fifteen minutes, I felt so much closer to the rest of the world. It was like I could sense everything. I could hear the wind whispering in the trees, I could see the city lights glowing on the clouds, I could feel the snowflakes caress my cheeks gently as if to apologize for the biting wind that carried them. God felt closer; the angels felt closer; the whole world felt closer. Without the noise, without the chaos, without the crowds, the winter wonderland was perfect. I can't even begin to describe the inspiration that ran through my veins, forming into words as I stood there freezing my tail off. Everyone else would come around, calling me crazy and complaining about the cold. But I endured because of the blissful silence.
Life is so full of noise. Doesn't matter what you're doing, something's always bound to interrupt you. Responsibilities, hobbies, friends, family, enemies, innocent and not-so-innocent bystanders, books, machinery, music, TV, cell phones, Facebook, Blogger, sports, news...and the list goes on. Something's always happening, something always needs to be done, something can always be done. Our heads get crammed so full of useless information that our internal computer starts going slow, processing all the easy things first to get them out of the way. It's the important stuff that gets ignored, that gets left until later and maybe even forgotten until it's too late, and your hard drive crashes.
"Goodness gosh, why don't you just get to the POINT already?!" you guys must be yelling at the computer screen right now. Boy, do I love getting figurative. x3 What I'm trying to say is, the noise and busyness in our lives drown out the gentle whispers of God. We get so darn absorbed in other things that we forget to remember Him. See, God doesn't like having to shout over all the noise. When He does that, things get pretty ugly--like they did with the Great Flood and in Sodom and Gomorrah. And hopefully you've never done anything QUITE that nasty!!! No, God prefers to whisper gently in our ears, in the silence...like during a winter night. Like during that silent winter night 2,000 years ago, when a little baby was born into a stable, among all the animals and smell, to an unassuming poor carpenter and his wife.
The Hebrews looked forward to their Messiah. But they were looking for a knight in shining armor on a white steed, someone who would stomp all the Romans' heads in. They weren't looking for a cute little baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. That's why, unfortunately, they never found Him. People like the Pharisees had all the noise in their heads and they looked in all the wrong places. People like the poor shepherds, who were just sitting outside watching their sheep during that silent night, didn't have all that noise in their heads. When the angels came to tell them, they heard and they knew where to look.
So, like the title says, a silent winter night was a perfect night. It was the perfect time to bring around His little whisper, our Lord and Savior. For those who were listening, the glad tidings were loud and clear. So this year, make sure you keep your ears strained. We can't erase all the noise, but we can close ourselves in our bedrooms and have a quiet little talk with Jesus. Maybe He'll tell you something you need to hear.
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