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Advent is a season that draws us into both busyness and reflection. This past weekend, the Music at St. Paul’s Service of Lessons and Carols reminded me of how much we cherish the familiar words of our favorite Advent hymns and Christmas carols. Though we sing them and know them for only a short season each year, our love for them means they remain deeply etched in our hearts, drawing us into the story of God’s love and plan for us to know His Son. These cherished hymns call us to remember — to not forget the goodness of God and the beauty of His promise seen in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Psalm 103 is a psalm of joyfully remembering. It calls us to remember in our hearts that which God has blessed us with, to hold fast to that relationship with God, and to “forget not” all the benefits that God has brought into our lives. The crux of that joyful remembrance is the reality that, though we are sinful, “He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities” (v. 10). Instead of the condemnation we deserve, God, in His love, took our sin upon Himself. That once in royal David’s city, in that little town of Bethlehem, on a seemingly silent night, the Savior of the nations came; that as gentle Mary laid her child away in that manger, and as angels from the realms of glory proclaimed His birth to shepherds who knelt wondering what child is this, a great and mighty wonder was being done — one that would bring true joy to the world.
But while that was all being done at Christmas, “forget not” that the true reason why God’s Son would lay in such mean estate — the whole reason for this merriment and cheer at Christmas — is because of what that child would experience later.
What Child Is This
LSB Hymn 370 • Stanza 2
Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian, fear; for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce Him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you;
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The babe, the son of Mary!
We often forget, though we ought not to, that the cross is at the heart of Christmas, that the Christ Child was born with a purpose, a plan, and a mission to live a life and pay the price it took to bring the joy of forgiveness to you and me. We should be careful each Advent and Christmas season to “forget not” the benefits of that Savior, whose birth we joyfully prepare to celebrate.
This season, no matter how chaotic it becomes, my prayer is that you would take time to abide in God’s love and reflect on what truly makes Christmas merry: the Savior who is Christ the Lord. In other words, “forget not” the benefits of the God who remembers you, befriends you, blesses you. For He came for you to know Him, and He will come again. We get the benefits of looking forward to that, knowing He is risen with healing in His wings. Praying these ever-true words, “Come, Friend of sinners, thus abide with me.”
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