Do You Hear What I Hear?

These are the words in a famous Christmas carol, but have you ever really thought about the question itself? You can just imagine a shepherd turning to another asking, “ Do you hear what I hear?”

What he heard was the messenger angel of God, proclaiming the good news that was born that night. The good news of a child, born in an impossibly human way, laying in a lowly cattle feeder, in what was a common Bethlehem barn, that would change the story of mankind forever.

A child, not born of an earthly king, but would rise to be King of all Kings.

A child, now so dependant on his earthly mother for care, who would, in a few short years, care enough for us to suffer horribly for payment of our sins.

A child, who the prophets foretold, who held the future in his hands?

A child whose birth has been misunderstood, claimed to be fiction, said to have been nothing special in the annuals of history, or at most, just a “good person”.

The question still rings out loud today. “Do you hear what I hear?” It goes on to answer, “a child, a child sleeping in the night, he will bring us goodness and light.”

This Christmas, with the assault on our faith ever-present, with wars and natural disasters and false religions forcing themselves on others, listen closely to the voice of God.

Do you hear what I hear?

Do you hear the sounds of the return of that child, now grown and ageless, triumphantly claiming his saints and his kingdom? What do you hear?