December 12 Advent thoughts  

(This, and the next Advent thoughts, were first penned in December of 2020) 

A voice of one calling: ‘in the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.’ Isaiah 40:3 

One of my favorite Christmas carols is one I remember fondly from Salisbury elementary school, where for 6 years Mrs. Swackhammer taught our class music in the gym. Whether or not she considered the story-and the meanings taken from it-I will never know. I just remembered there was something special to me about ‘Do You Hear What I Hear’. The song was written in 1962, the year of my birth, during the October Crisis or what is commonly referred to as the Cuban Missile Crisis. Written by a former WW II soldier, first impressed into the Nazi army and who immediately ran away to join the French resistance, he wrote it as a plea to stop the insanity. To instead bring peace. Altho he doesn’t specifically say it, his opening line of the night wind asking ‘do you hear what I hear’ is reminiscent of Elijah the prophet, who only hears God when he stops and listens to the ‘small still voice’. Christmas is a time of noise, not all of it welcome, often overloading our senses. Carols and songs blare at us everywhere we go, bell ringers stand outside shops, the noise and confusion of running too and fro. It can grate on already frayed nerves and overwhelm what is most important. This year, especially with the virus, political issues dividing us, everything shut down-or at least severely curtailed-many of us unemployed and uncertainty at every turn. This is a time that more than anything we need to stop. Look and hear. A star. A song. A child. Pray for peace, that we might see that Child who brings goodness and light. 

Said the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see? 

Way up in the star, little lamb, do you see what I see? 

A star, a star, shining in the night, with a tail as big as a kite. 

Said the king to the people everywhere, listen to what I say. 

Pray for peace, people everywhere, listen to what I say. 

The child, the child, sleeping in the night, He will bring us goodness and light. 

-Do You Hear What I Hear, written by Noel Regny, 1962