Bethlehem today doesn’t bear much resemblance to the Bethlehem of biblical times. It seems like everything changes—but some truths are eternal.
In 1865 Rector Phillips Brooks of Philadelphia was given a wonderful view of one such truth. Journeying on horseback from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, Brooks stopped for the night in the hills above his destination.
Even in 1865 Bethlehem would have been quite different from Jesus’ time, but Brooks was struck by the fact that this sleeping town was where the Lord came to earth. That fact would never change, and neither would the message He brought.
Assisting in a Christmas service in the “little town,” Brooks seemed to hear voices he knew well proclaiming the wonder of that holy birth.
He recorded his emotions in a poem that he showed to church organist Lewis Redner. Legend has it that the tune came to Redner on Christmas Eve and the Sunday school choir sang it for the first time the very next day.
As Brooks sat in the silence of the hills, that first nativity must not have seemed so long ago, because the consequences of it were still very present in his mind, just as they are still present in the world today.
As he points out in his beautiful carol, “Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.”
Even in an age of security fences and army patrols, wherever children pray, wherever misery cries out, wherever charity watches and “faith holds wide the door,” Jesus will be there.
Bethlehem, like the rest of the world, has changed and will continue to change—but, as Brooks realized while watching that sleeping town, wherever a willing heart calls Christ to come in and stay, sins will be cast out and, no matter how many years have passed since the first one, it will be Christmas once more.
And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.
MATTHEW 2:6