By The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird
I will always remember my ‘star’ Christmas performance back in kindergarten days. There I was dressed up as a Christmas shepherd, with my staff, bedrobe, and head-scarf. I was so excited about being a shepherd that I forgot where I was supposed to meet the rest of the cast. So I sat down at the front of the stage and waited for them to find me. Unfortunately that lost kindergarten shepherd was never found, until the whole pageant was over. I was most disappointed, and ‘vowed’ that day to never become a famous Hollywood actor.
Almost 2,000 years ago in the little town of Bethlehem (not Bellingham, as we’d often sing as children), a little shepherd baby was born in a filthy cow barn. Many shepherds were drawn to admire this tiny little child, little knowing that this baby would one day become a Good Shepherd for many. Years later, this christmas baby-turned-thirty said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep”.
It is amazing how much that Christmas Carols speak to the hearts of adults and children alike. Those of us living on the North Shore are well aware of the remarkable 
popularity of the Carol Ships travelling past Deep Cove and Cates Park year after year.
Carols have a certain poetry, romance, and mystery that draws us unfailingly year after year. When we sing: “Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by”, we almost feel like we were there when the Christmas Star first shone bright. Christmas Carols teach truth, but in a subtle way that feels entirely natural. In singing “Yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting Light”, we are reminded that there is a battle between good and evil, light and darkness, but that Light is always more powerful than darkness. No wonder the Christmas baby later called himself the Light of the World. He also said that whoever followed him will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
No wonder we love to sing: “The hopes and fear of all the years are met in thee tonight.” There is something about the Christmas baby that inspires hope and banishes fear, no matter how cynical or jaded we tend to be. Many Christmas Carols have a beautiful sense of stillness and quiet about them. There is so little quiet and stillness left in our fast-paced, frenetic culture. Maybe that is why we are drawn to sing: “How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven.” All of us need more inner peace, more shalom in our lives. All of us need the stillness and tranquillity of the Christmas baby, known in Hebrew as Yeshua.
The deepest truths of Christmas go far beyond the beautiful tree, the tasty turkey, the colourful lights. The deepest truths are invisible and silent, but still very powerful and real. That is why we sing that “no ear may hear his coming.” Just like with the love between a man and wife, the most important things in life can’t be scientifically measured or technologically formulated. Christmas is a mystery that defies all logical attempts to explain it away. Christmas is the miracle of new birth, not only 2,000 years ago, but also potentially in our hearts. That is why so many of us never tire of singing: “Where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.”
My Christmas prayer for those reading this article is that many may discover afresh the joy of the inner meaning of Christmas Caroling.
The Rev. Dr. Ed Hird, BSW, MDiv, DMin
-award-winning author of the book Battle for the Soul of Canada
-previously published in the North Shore News/Deep Cove Crier
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Indigo also offers the paperback and the Kobo ebook version. You can also obtain it through ITunes as an IBook.
-Click to purchase the Companion Bible Study by Jan Cox (for the Battle of the Soul of Canada) in both paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca
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Sandy Brown and her family have just moved to Spokane, Washington where her husband, Scott, is pastoring a new church. With a fresh start, Sandy is determined to devote more time to her four children. But, within weeks of settling in their new life, the Brown family is plunged into turmoil.
His ‘criminal’ behaviour was none other than publishing a pamphlet urging doctors to wash their hands before surgery and to sterilize their instruments. Thirty percent of pregnant women in Paris were needlessly dying from infection during childbirth. One grief-struck husband, whose wife had just died from childbirth fever, went on a rampage and shot his doctor dead. Medical doctors rallied against Dr. Pasteur, blaming his pamphlet for the murder and claiming that Pasteur was making the practice of medicine unsafe for physicians and surgeons. “Who did Pasteur think that he was?” They said. “He isn’t even a medical doctor…just a lowly chemist”.
countryside of Arbois, Pasteur spent the next decade researching the causes of anthrax, the black plague ravaging the sheep across France. Miraculously Pasteur invented an anthrax vaccine, which he gave freely to all farmers’ sheep in Arbois.
The ‘great physician’ Jesus once said that if anyone wants to be first, he must become the very last, and the servant of all. Louis Pasteur was indeed the servant of all, who sacrificed his time, energy, and health so that others might live. Pasteur selflessly taught that the benefits of science are not for the scientist, but for all of humanity.
let yourselves be tainted by a barren skepticism nor discouraged by sadness of certain hours that creep over every nation. Do not become angry at your opponents for no scientific theory has ever been accepted without opposition.’
ranch development in British Columbia.
accident. A good shepherd would put tremendous labour into clearing rough rocky ground into lush pasture land. Psalm 23 tells us that Jesus the Good Shepherd desires to take away our fear and disharmony so that we can find the inner peace that we have always been looking for.
Perhaps most familiar of all is the phrase: “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death , I will fear no evil, for You are with me”. Think of funerals you have been to, and what comfort these words have been. Keller tells us that the only way to the mountainous green pastures is through the dangerous mountain valleys where wolves and coyotes are in hiding, waiting for their next victim. Psalm 23 reminds us that the Good Shepherd is also a warrior who will fight for us and protect us, even in times of death and tragedy.
Edhird's Blog 