By Robert Jones
Frances Ridley Havergal was an English religious poet and hymn writer of the 1800s. Take My Life and Let it Be and Thy Life for Me are two of her best-known hymns. She also wrote hymn melodies, religious tracts, and works for children. As she was dying at the early age of forty-three, Havergal asked a friend who was standing by her bed to read to her from the forty-second chapter of Isaiah. When the friend was reading the sixth verse, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness; I have taken you by the hand and kept you…” Then she stopped her friend from reading any further. With a voice barely above a whisper she said: “CALLED—HELD BY HIS HAND—KEPT. I can go home on that!” Frances Havergal on her death bed held to and contented herself on these promises of God. As she closed her eyes for the final time, she had no doubt that God would fulfill these for her.
Jesus’ birth delivers the same message to everyone of us today. We are called, held and kept by the promised salvation delivered to us by the man Jesus of Nazareth.
We are called to recognition of Jesus as the ultimate example of a life well lived. A life centered on the care and concerns of other’s needs. We are called to his compassion upon those of low estate in society. Those, that are most vulnerable among us, those are the people we are called to protect. Those are the people we are called to serve. We are called to love, truth, and justice. We are called to spread them far and wide like rays of light over a dark terrain at dawn. The holiday season, for so many of us, is filled with joy and happiness. In the midst of it all let us not forget those who have lost loved ones during this pandemic, those who have lost jobs, those who have lost homes and those who just feel lost. Let us fulfill the calling of Jesus’ birth by giving our time and resources to those in need of light this Christmas season.
Given all that has transpired in the previous two years, it is not an exaggeration to say that we have been held by God’s hand. Jesus’ coming is a reminder that the strong, affirming hand of God will always be there for us. If any of us were told that we would go through an extended period of limited contact with our closest friends and family, a stalled economy and rising inflation, many of us would not have been able to imagine a way in which we would survive. Yet here we are. In the face of an invisible and deadly foe, we have been held by an unseen yet powerful hand.
Finally, this Christmas season and the birth of Jesus reminds us that we will keep going forward. This pandemic is not the first calamity of human history, and it will not be the last. As one author put it, “In times like these it is important to remember there have always been times like these.” We will be kept no matter what comes. Jesus’ birth initiates a new peace and contentment that can be accessed in the most dreary of times. We can count on it today, tomorrow and every day after.
I’ll leave you with the word of Frances Havergal.
