Silent Nights

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God...
Luke 2:13 NKJV

Tonight, I went to the performance of The Singing Christmas Tree at First Baptist Pasadena. I am so grateful that my daughter-in-love bought me a ticket. They had between 130 and 140 singers just in the tree alone. What a sound! They filled the auditorium with reverberating swells of musical praise! It was very moving!

Throughout the evening, I kept coming back to our verse for today. You know, a multitude is generally defined as more than 100. The NIV reads, "a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel". A company of soldiers is somewhere between 130 and 150. Other versions read "vast host" or "vast number" which is a great many. More than 100 voices... Based on tonight's experience, I couldn't help but wonder how silent could that night have been if a "multitude of the heavenly host" were praising God?

It HAD been silent before that. In fact, there had been 400 years of silent nights from Heaven... From the last words of Malachi until Gabriel spoke to Zechariah, no prophetic words from God the Father. One hundred forty-six THOUSAND silent nights... 

And when Jesus is born, the Passion Translation reads, Then all at once in the night sky, a vast number of glorious angels appeared, the very armies of heaven! And they all praised God, singing... 

No more silent nights!

Prayer:

Father,

          Thank You for music and laughter and voices swelled in songs of praise to You. Thank You for speaking to our hearts and for hearing our prayers and praise back to You. We are ever grateful for the birth of Your Son to redeem us from our sins - giving us something to sing about! In the words of the song, "All my life You have been faithful! All my life You have been so SO good! With every breath that I am able, I'm gonna sing of the goodness of God!" We will not be silent. Help us to stay true in our praise and thanksgiving to You. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen