To view the entire 2011 Christmas Carol Advent check out our Christmas Carol Advent index page.
Video
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rqhG2yT-58
Story Behind the Song
This song from Casting Crowns appeared on their 2008 Christmas Album Peace on Earth.
Commentary & Analysis
This song is a call to wake up and take note of what God is doing all around us. Set against the backdrop of a quiet night in Bethlehem, we are left to wonder about all of the people (many of them likely weary travelers) who slept through the most amazing night in the history of mankind. What did those people miss as they slumbered? Our Lord and Kind, the Creator and Sustainer of everything, came to earth as a man that night as countless people slept and never even noticed. While noble men were sleep in their comfortable beds, his presence was announced to lowly shepherds in a field. Indeed, as this song reminds us, the town of Bethlehem (birthplace of our King) is best known as the town with no room for the coming Savior. Flash forward to 30 some odd years later, in a town not so far away, Jesus (now a man) was tried and beaten and convicted while the city slept. I love the next lines of this song as they describe way too many people in our world today:
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Have you made room for Him in your life?
Flash forward another 2,000 years to a nation which is the leader of the free world – a nation with a sense of pride in what it has become. We are a nation which increasingly rejects Jesus Christ. This song looks forward to day which is coming when our Lord and Savior will return, and all will be judged. Are you ready for that day? Will you be sleeping?
Questions for Further Reflection / Devotion
- What do you think it would be like to have been one of the those people sleeping in Bethlehem when Jesus was born?
- The Bible tells us that Jesus was rejected by His own people. Why do you think that happened? Do you still see that attitude today?
- What are you doing internally to prepare yourself for Christ’s second coming?
- What do you think the song means when it says we have been “sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children?”
Lyrics
Oh little town of Bethlehem
Looks like another silent night
Above your deep and dreamless sleep
A giant star lights up the sky
And while you’re lying in the dark
There shines an everlasting light
For the King has left His throne
And is sleeping in a manger tonight
Oh Bethlehem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
For God became a man
And stepped into your world today
Oh Bethlehem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping
Oh little town of Jerusalem
Looks like another silent night
The Father gave His only Son
The Way, the Truth, the Life had come
But there was no room for Him in the world He came to save
Jerusalem, what you have missed while you were sleeping
The Savior of the world is dying on your cross today
Jerusalem, you will go down in history
As a city with no room for its King
While you were sleeping
While you were sleeping
United States of America
Looks like another silent night
As we’re sung to sleep by philosophies
That save the trees and kill the children
And while we’re lying in the dark
There’s a shout heard ‘cross the eastern sky
For the Bridegroom has returned
And has carried His bride away in the night
America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
Will Jesus come again
And leave us slumbering where we lay
America, will we go down in history
As a nation with no room for its King
Will we be sleeping
Will we be sleeping
United States of America
Looks like another silent night