Artwork:
In the Trenches by Alphonse de Neuville, (1874) is an oil on canvas. Housed at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore MD, Neuville depicts the weariness of trench warfare by showing a weary group of soldiers slumbering in a frozen trench while a scant fire attempts to provide warmth.

Advent Devotional

On Christmas Eve of 1871, in the midst of the Franco-Prussian war, an unarmed French soldier stood up from his tawdry trench and began to sing the lines of a popular hymn. Originally titled Midnight Christians, the hymn called Christians to bend their knees and await God’s deliverance. Across the battle line, German soldiers responded by singing a carol of their own. And so a Christmas ceasefire began, the horrors of war stilled at least for a moment, by soldiers’ attention turned to Christ and a holy night warmed by worship.

From its unlikely composition by a Jesuit-educated, leftist, French wine merchant to its use as an abolitionist anthem, Midnight Christians or O Holy Night tells the story of Christ the Redeemer. Born to rescue all humankind from the penalty and power of sin, Christ the Savior comes to a world mired in sin, brokenness and betrayal. “In sin and error pining” paints a tragic image of ongoing evil and desperate suffering, a world locked in bondage yearning for deliverance and freedom. It is in this, the darkest of nights, that hope breaks through in the birth of Christ.

Are you yearning for a Savior? Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, the guarantee that ransoms us from death and sets the captive free. His coming calls forth the “thrill of hope” and glorious rejoicing. Jesus brings the end of oppression, an “eternal inheritance”, and the tangible experience of God’s love and peace.

Prayer

On my knees
I fall before You.
In glad worship
and adoration
I proclaim:
Christ is the Lord!
You ransom, heal,
save, and deliver. Let
all that is within me
praise Your holy name.