This summer, while sorting through papers with my parents, we came across a short devotional written by my father. It was published in a devotional periodical but inquiries to both Our Daily Bread and Guideposts confirmed that it was not their publications. Since we have the original page with a date, we know the piece appeared somewhere, yet I couldn’t determine its source.
As you may know from my blog bio, my father had a career in journalism, launching with a wire news service, then joining the staff of the newly founded Christianity Today, and eventually becoming the editor of Christian Herald magazine. His writing featured current events and issues mostly within the Protestant church, including magazine editorials. His style usually wasn’t homiletic, so the short piece quoted below is unique. I don’t know if the prayer and Thought for the Day were my dad’s or added by an editor.
Wednesday, December 1, 1976
Read John 1:43-51
Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? John 1:46
My wife and I were charmed by a visit to the village of Oberndorf, Austria. It was there that Joseph Mohr and Franz Gruber first introduced what has come to be the world’s best-loved Christmas carol, “Silent Night.” The church organ was broken, so a guitar was used for accompaniment at the Christmas Eve Mass.
That was in 1818 when communications were such that the song could not be readily shared with the world. Yet it not only found its way out of that obscure place, but became the most renowned of all Christmas songs.
Jesus Himself came out of what from every worldly standard would be considered obscurity. God actually ordained that His Son take on humanity in that way, and then suffer an ignominious death so that all who trust Him might have forgiveness of sin.
Doesn’t this tell those of us who have trusted Him as Savior something important about our work for the Lord? Everything we do, no matter how humble the context, has a great potential if we do it well – as God ordained.
PRAYER: O God, help us to keep in mind that the quality of performance is so much more important that what we deem to be ideal circumstances. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Thought for the Day
The most humble became the most famous.
David E. Kucharsky (Arlington, Virginia)
I hesitate to add much commentary to this piece; his words speak for themselves. As he says, he always valued doing quality work, and that included work that was service, things done for Christ’s sake. Even recently my dad spoke to me about continuing to be useful and cognizant of what ministry God would have for him in this stage of his life. This Scripture was not quoted but it fits his intent: 23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV).
An epilogue to the fame of “Silent Night” is an event from World War I. During the war, an unofficial truce occurred on Christmas Eve 1914. That night enemy soldiers joined in singing “Silent Night.” The movie “Joyeux Noel” (2005) retells the story. The humble carol, composed because of an obscure church crisis, holds a world stage.
