With the Dawn of Redeeming Grace

Last year at the Christmas Eve service I allowed God's Love to surround me.  Everything that I was reading at that time seemed to center around love and forgiveness.  I was focused on it and I could see it very clearly as I looked around the church that evening.  I still feel this love, God's love, when I enter the church each Sunday.  I still pray for my family, friends and church family often, the ones that needed it most last Christmas, the ones that need it the most this Christmas and even the people that sit silently in the congregation each week with their thoughts and prayers.  I'm going to be realistic with myself this year and just assume that I will shed a few tears.  I'm actually pretty sure that I will leave the service feeling similar to how I felt last year:

http://publiclookin.blogspot.com/2010/12/love.html

I know that I will feel His love on Christmas Eve because I can feel it around me all of the time.  It's like a warm blanket on a cold winter night and He knows I need it on Christmas Eve.  As we prepare for His birth and as I celebrate my Dad's second birthday in heaven, I will need this warmth and love to feed my spirit. This year, as I finish wrapping all of the presents, as I sit silently and look at our Christmas tree, I feel like everything has changed but remains the same. My world was flipped upside down a year ago, but the rest of the world didn't stop.

With each new day, each new week, each new year, there is a rise and fall; a time that we fall short and a period of redemption that follows closely after we stumble; times that we struggle to feel God's grace and times where we seem to see His grace everywhere we look.

Last night I was singing Silent Night to myself as I wrapped presents.  Like most Christians, I can sing each verse from memory. It's always been my favorite hymn and Christmas song. I realized though, as I was singing "With the Dawn of Redeeming Grace", that I didn't really know what all of the words meant when they are all put together.  When they are surrounded by the other words of the hymn and collide in the same line of one verse of the song. I couldn't quite define what they mean. 

Dawn is defined by Google as the first appearance of light in the sky before sunrise.  One definition (again, presented by Google) of redeeming is atoning or making amends for error or evil.  Grace is defined by Google as the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in the salvation of sinners and the bestowal of blessings.

Even though I knew what the words meant separately prior to looking up the definitions, I don't think I have ever heard them used together outside of "Silent Night".  I often hear people use "saving grace", but rarely-if ever,  "redeeming grace".  Once I start thinking about something, my mind focuses on it until I finally sort the thoughts out. I have sang "Silent Night" too many times to count.  I have memories attached to singing the song in church and as I sing my children to sleep.  It's my favorite hymn, yet I have never thought about this line before last night.

Last night I wondered what the writer meant when he put the words together.  Clearly I can't shoot him an email and ask him...since it was first written in 1816 and translated in 1859 to include the phrase "with the dawn of redeeming grace". I asked for other people to weigh in on facebook, but I wasn't able to provoke any serious responses that way either.  So, I guess you'll have to settle for my opinion as I sort out my thoughts.

I think the phrase "With the dawn of redeeming grace" in the context of "Silent Night" wraps all of my feelings about God's love, the importance of forgiveness, fulfillment that can only be achieved through Him and so much more into one.  As the sun rises (dawn) our Savior is born.  As the sun rises a new day is born, on the Holy Night Jesus was born. The One, that even in flesh form did not sin, was born with redeeming grace.  He led by example.  Instead of sending us to Hell when we sin, He died for our immoral actions (redemption) and offers life everlasting.  Christ The Savior fought for the poor and oppressed, the sinners and the outcasts. Through it all he offered forgiveness, love, beauty, balance, peace...GRACE. 

Through the dawn of redeeming grace, He offers us life.  Jesus, Lord at Thy birth.  Can you see the radiant beams in this dawn? Can you feel the warmth offered in redemption when you stumble and fall?  Isn't it quite graceful for Him to pick us back up and brush us off, over and over again, and love us despite our failures?  Through the dawn of redeeming grace a new day will come. See the radiant beams of hope all around you.  In the sunrise, in the smile on a child's face, in the volunteers that ring the bell for the Salvation Army, His promise is all around you!

I can't wait to sing "Silent Night" with the congregation this year.  With the dawn of redeeming grace, Merry Christmas!!

Thanks for waking up early to take pictures, Grant Cummings!