Dear Friends,
Tonight is surely a memorial of one of the holiest nights of the year, the night of our Savior’s birth. Today’s devotional gives you some thoughts on why it is so important. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,
John Janney

• Luke 2:1-7 (ESV)

  1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the first registration when[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town. 4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed,[b] who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.[c]

BETHLEHEM TOWN

“As I was going to Bethlehem town,

Upon the earth I cast me down

All underneath a little tree

That whispered in this wise to me:

‘O, I shall stand on Calvary

And bear what burthen saveth thee!’

And up I fared to Bethlehem town,

I met a shepherd coming down,

And thus he quoth: ‘A wondrous sight

Hath spread before mine eyes this night ―

An angel host most fair to see,

That sung full sweetly of a tree

That shall uplift on Calvary

What burthen saveth you and me!’

And as I got to Bethlehem town,

Lo! wise men came that bore a crown.

‘Is there,’ cried I, ‘in Bethlehem

A king shall wear this diadem?’

‘Good sooth,’ they quoth, ‘and it is He

That shall be lifted on the tree,

And freely shed on Calvary

What blood redeemeth us and thee!’

Unto a child in Bethlehem town

The wise men came and brought a crown;

And, while the infant smiling slept,

Upon their knees they fell and wept;

But, with her babe upon her knee

Naught recked that mother of the tree

That should uplift on Calvary

What burthen saveth all and me.

Again I walk in Bethlehem town,

And think on Him that wears the crown;

I may not kiss His feet again,

Not worship Him as did I then;

My King hath died upon the tree,

And hath outpoured on Calvary

What blood redeemeth you and me!”

[Eugene Field in J. Wilbur Chapman, From Life To Life, (Boston: United Society of Christian Endeavor, 1900), p. 63-64]