The Songs Tell the Story: A Family Advent DevotionalSample

The Song by Two Men Who Didn’t Know Jesus

In 1847, a man named Placide Cappeau was asked to write a poem for a Christmas service. He was a poet but admitted that he didn’t attend church very often. Nevertheless, he said yes to the request. He was riding in a bumpy coach on a dusty road in France when he wrote the words to “O Holy Night.”

Cappeau was reading the gospel of Luke that day for inspiration. He began to imagine what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph the night Jesus was born. His thoughts became his poem. Because he felt that his poem had been inspired by God, he decided it should become a hymn, so Cappeau asked a Jewish friend if he would compose music for his words.

Adolphe Charles Adams was a famous composer who didn’t celebrate Christmas. He was Jewish and didn’t believe the subject of the poem was God’s holy Son. But he wrote beautiful music for his friend’s poem, anyway.

“O Holy Night” has been sung in churches around the world for hundreds of years. Very few people realize it was written and composed by two men who knew very little about Jesus.

Do you ever feel like you don’t know enough to share your beliefs about Jesus? Do you get quiet when Jesus is talked about at your school or at a party? Sometimes it seems like the subject of Jesus is really just for preachers or Bible teachers on Sunday.

Jesus allows himself to be known by everyone. He can be seen in the miracles of nature, in the lives of believers, and in the words of the Bible. But, Jesus can also inspire and use people who don’t have a strong faith.

Jesus was talking to his disciples before they went out to share their faith with others. They were worried they wouldn’t know what to say. Jesus told them, “Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matthew 10:19).

God still inspires people today with great words and thoughts. If your friends are talking about Christmas, or Christ, and you want to help them believe, ask God what you should say. Let God’s Holy Spirit give you his words and speak.

God gave words to two unlikely men, and Christians have been singing “O Holy Night” for hundreds of years.

What will God help you say today?