Christmas chaos and clamor getting you down?
It’s been more than 400 years, and Martin Luther’s words still whisper through the noise.
“Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.”
Martin Luther (1585)
Trans by Catherine Winkworth (1855)
Don’t know how God gets it down,
or the protocols He employs,
but when my faith doth go to town,
my whole life’s a wall of noise.
Don’t need quiet when I sleep,
don’t want peace, it’s tres BO-ring;
and Bach’s safely grazing sheep?
Dreams of mutton while I’m snoring.
But I guess there’s use for calm;
it makes a better contrast for
the pause before the wild alarm
that calls the heathen host to war.
So clash the cymbals, bang the drums
for something loud this way comes.
Shepherds keep watch in the quiet of the night, and boom! The sky explodes into the Hallelujah Chorus. Yep, “something loud this way comes.”
Bet THEY were surprised.