Day 9 — O Little Town of Bethlehem

Some of the greatest miracles happen quietly with no fanfare.

You don’t have to be at a miracle service or receive a special touch from a minister (though those things are wonderful!). If you think about the greatest miracles in the Bible, most of them took place in ways no one would expect, with very few, if any, onlookers. 

People can receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and be guaranteed to spend eternity with Him—quietly and even alone in their bedrooms with no one else around. Marriages can be restored in a quiet moment between a couple. An answered prayer can come through reading a piece of mail quietly to yourself. Healing can come to your physical body just sitting quietly in a faith-filled atmosphere. Even the creation of a new life inside a mother’s womb is a miracle that occurs in “the secret place.”

That truth is what Phillip Brooks was capturing when he wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in 1865 after returning from a trip to Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. While there, he had noticed what a quiet place Bethlehem was and how it was much like it would have been the night of Jesus’ birth. 

“Before dark we rode out of town to the field where they say the shepherds saw the star. It is a fenced piece of ground with a cave in it, in which, strangely enough, they put the shepherds…. Somewhere in those fields we rode through [where] the shepherds must have been. As we passed, the shepherds were still ‘keeping watch over their flocks,’ or leading them home to fold.”

Today’s song, originally written for children in a Sunday School class, gives an opportunity to reflect on the miracle that took place on a quiet night, in an unassuming town, with only the small audience of a few shepherds.

O little town of Bethlehem,

how still we see thee lie;

above thy deep and dreamless sleep

the silent stars go by.

Yet in thy dark streets shineth

the everlasting light;

the hopes and fears of all the years

are met in thee tonight.

If you need a miracle this Christmas, you don’t have to wait for a big production or a grand moment. As one verse in the song says, “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given!” 

Your miracle can come to you right now, as you sit quietly. Ask the Lord. Believe in His miracles. When you do, He says you’ll have what you ask of Him (James 1:6-8; Mark 11:23-24). Nothing is too hard for our God—believe it and receive it!