By Tanya Jolliffe
Music has always spoken to my soul. When mixed with an experience, it sticks with me. For example, some songs from the 80s that I hear take me back to the high school dance and dancing with my friends like it was just yesterday. Or hearing a classical piano piece will remind me of my mother sitting at the piano playing.
It works the same way with songs and hymns many times. Songs sung in worship often take me to the scripture, or song lyrics run through my head as I read scripture. The Christmas season especially brings memories to mind. Hearing the song “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” takes me back to grade school and our family leaving the Christmas Eve service after midnight as the snow falls. My father belts out the chorus while we walk down the street to our car. Singing “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” I am transported to grade school church decorating gatherings when the children got to help put the nativity creche together.
For various reasons, no song transports me to special memories better than Silent Night or “Stille Nacht,” as the 1816 poem by an Austrian Catholic Priest named it. With the maiden name Fasnacht, you can see why the original name sticks with me. But experiencing silent night has stayed with me so much more.
When I was eight, our church received a new pastor. He brought theatrical evangelism to our church as well. The experiences would bring the stories to life each Christmas and Easter to help people experience the gospel’s truth. At Christmas, the silent night experience eventually changed my life.
In the 1970s, we only had one Christmas Eve service, a candlelight service that began at 11:00 PM and ended just after midnight. In addition to the standard candelabras up front, there were additional giant circular candelabras and candelabras down the aisle on the ends of the pews. Many wore their fancy Christmas outfits. Our 300-seat sanctuary required extra folding chairs for many years to provide enough seating. Perhaps it was the silent night experience that made that necessary.
The ushers extinguished all the candles as midnight approached, and a hush came over the sanctuary. Sitting in total darkness, we waited for the light to enter our world. Soon, a youth dressed in a white robe angelically entered with one lit candle. As our eyes adjusted to this singular light, we silently watched it move toward the front, bringing light to the darkness. As this small light reached the front, Silent Night would begin to play from the organ, and voices would ring out in chorus as each candle of the candelabras was re-lit, and the flame was shared up and down each row. Suddenly, there was a great light in the darkness. Then it would happen, the moment that still brings a lump to my throat and God bumps on my arms, as I remember.
Everyone begins singing the words of the third verse, “Silent night, holy night! Son of God, love’s pure light,” as they raise their candles and continue, “Radiant beams from Thy holy face with the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth, Jesus, Lord, at Thy birth.” In 1982, during that moment, I gave my heart to Jesus. I celebrated his birth and welcomed his life that would show me how I was to live and his redeeming grace that would give me eternal life.
Jesus entered into a dark world as the light of the world. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1: 14 ESV). My life has never been the same since that special singing of Silent Night. “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil” (Isaiah 9: 2-3 ESV).
Whether it is a song, a special moment, or a fond memory, take time to remember the special times that helped form your faith. Just as Luke 2:9 reminds us, “Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart,” we need to treasure and ponder the experiences that are part of our journey, too.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
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