During our church’s Christmas celebration, I watched the choir members
assemble in front of the congregation while the music director rifled through
papers on a slim black stand. The instruments began, and the singers launched
into a well-known song that started with these words: “Come, now is the time to
worship.”
Although I expected to hear a time-honored Christmas carol, I smiled at
the appropriate choice of music. Earlier that week I had been reading Luke’s
account of Jesus’ birth, and I noticed that the first Christmas lacked our
modern-day parties, gifts, and feasting—but it did include worship.
After the angel announced Jesus’ birth to some wide-eyed shepherds, a
chorus of angels began “praising God and saying: ‘Glory to God in the
highest!’” (Luke 2:13-14). The shepherds responded by running to Bethlehem where they found the
newborn King lying in a barnyard bassinet. They returned to their fields
“glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen”
(v.20). Coming face to face with the Son inspired the shepherds to worship the
Father.
Today, consider your response to Jesus’ arrival on earth. Is there room
for worship in your heart on this day that celebrates His birth?
Heaven’s choir came down to sing
when heaven’s King came down to save. (RBC)
