O Holy Night

Testimony by TAYLOR BARKLEY

Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.

Advent is a season that emphasizes waiting and hoping. It seems every person in Scripture encounters at least one significant period of waiting on God: Moses, Elijah and Jesus are a few significant examples. During this season, we look back at the waiting and hope the people of Israel had in a Savior, and we also look forward to the things for which we are waiting and hoping.

Elijah Under the Broom Tree (1 Kings 19)

Although following God seems to universally include waiting and hoping, it can be easy to forget the intense feelings that waiting and hoping produce. Often the feelings are not pleasant. Waiting connotes an absence of action, voice, or a sign. Something is unresolved. Hoping means belief in a future action that has yet to happen. It can be easy to miss or skip over these instances in Scripture since they are often captured in only a sentence. Moses went from enslaved to the elite, associating with the most powerful family in the world, and then spent 40 years underemployed, tending sheep, before an encounter with God in the burning bush. How did he feel about God’s plan in the midst of those 40 years? 

Elijah made a huge wager in faith (hope) on top of Mount Carmel that God would show up and the false gods would not. Of course, his wager paid off in a miraculous, fiery, and bloody way. Yet when Jezebel threatened his life, he fled for the desert and asked God to end his life. He was done. Then angels attended to him by providing some food, and then he walked for 40 days and nights where there is no biblical record of God speaking to him. He, of course, arrived at the mountain where God famously spoke to him in the whisper. How did he feel about God’s plan in the midst of those 40 days?

“Jesus asked the Father, “If you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” He knew what was before Him and, like you and I, asked God to take that suffering away. Yet he followed through...”

— Taylor Barkley

Jesus asked the Father, “If you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." He knew what was before Him and, like you and I, asked God to take that suffering away. Yet he followed through, waiting and hoping on God’s good plan. He most profoundly waited on the Father while He was on the cross. Through the incarnation, Jesus knows what it feels like to wait and hope, even in the midst of suffering.

This year, these themes have a new meaning and significance for me and my wife. Beginning in 2019, we learned quite a bit about waiting and hoping on God. And in many respects we are still waiting and hoping. After doctors discovered a rare tumor growing in my wife’s spinal cord, slowly paralyzing her, the only option to keep her alive was to operate. We had just had our first baby, a healthy baby boy, so Rachel’s recovery was even more of a priority. We waited eight agonizing days from the time of the diagnosis in the ER to the surgery. Eight days where our lives did a hard u-turn from the direction we thought we were heading. Two days before the surgery, I experienced the darkest period of my life. At that time I didn’t know if my wife would be paralyzed forever or just temporarily, how much of her body would be paralyzed, or if she would wake up or die during or after the surgery.

There was no way to fast forward time even though I desperately wanted to get through this terrible part of our lives. I don’t remember hearing God’s voice during the darkest of moments. It was silence: waiting and hoping. No matter how we felt, God did provide, and He kept my wife alive through the surgery, recovery and subsequent complications. She is still in a wheelchair today, but her legs have recovered much of their function and continue to recover .

Knowing about Moses, Elijah, Jesus and the others in the Bible who all waited on God gave me a greater perspective, helping me to weather the waiting. It’s easy to gloss over the lyric from “O, Holy Night” - Long lay the world in sin and error pining - and not recognize the heaviness of it. The world was waiting for Christ’s birth. The people of God waited a few thousand years for God’s promised coming, including years of God’s silence before Christ’s birth. “Pining” is a fitting word for periods of waiting on God.

I am learning that this season of waiting and hoping on God doesn’t mean that God has failed. Instead, waiting is a part of God’s plan for us as much as it has been a consistent part of His plan made manifest so far. On the other side there will be “a thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices.”

O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
'Til He appears and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees; O hear the Angel voices!
O night divine, O night when Christ was born
O night, O Holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of Faith serenely beaming
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand
So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming
Here come the Wise Men from Orient land
The King of kings lay thus in lowly manger
In all our trials born to be our friend
He knows our need, to our weakness is no stranger
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend
Behold your King; before Him lowly bend

Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His Gospel is Peace
Chains shall He break, for the slave is our brother
And in His name, all oppression shall cease
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we
Let all within us Praise His Holy name
Christ is the Lord; O praise His name forever!
His power and glory evermore proclaim
His power and glory evermore proclaim

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O Holy Night” is originally a French poem (titled “Minuit Chrétiens”) written in 1843 by Placide Cappeau in Roquemaure, France, and translated into English in 1855.