'Sing through all Jerusalem...': Advent Day 15

                        Hail, thou ever blessed morn!

                        Hail, redemption’s happy dawn!

                        Sing through all Jerusalem:

                        ‘Christ is born in Bethlehem.’

Sometimes we get news so good we can’t keep it to ourselves. Nor should we – joyful things are meant to be heralded. Yet rarely do we get the same frantic stir to share the victories of history; much as we admire and are thankful for VE-day or the defeat of the Armada, we do not run downstairs and shout to our loved ones of their triumph.

The chorus to this carol demands that we make one exception to this rule – and that is the birth of Jesus Christ. The morn is ever blessed, for redemption has dawned! The birth of Christ must be proclaimed through all Jerusalem, and then to the ends of all the Earth. The news of Jesus’ birth is always as fresh as that first Bethlehem morning, for the hope and offer of redemption in Him has not ceased.

This is what Christmas is all about – proclaiming the great news of Jesus’ birth! Let us join the song.

See, amid the winter's snow - words by Edward Caswall