My dad once said that It Came Upon the Midnight Clear was his favorite Christmas carol. Now, unlike myself, Dad’s not given to great explanations (though he can tell a great story) so the only reason he offered was that “it’s all in there.”

That gave a curious kid like myself something to ponder. Back then, I only noticed the obvious aspects of the Christmas story that weren’t there. No shepherds. No wise men. Nary a Mary or a Joseph. And — can it be? — no baby in a manger. So what could Dad have meant?

Read through the lyrics:

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth,
To touch their harps of gold;
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From Heaven’s all gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O’er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains,
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever over its Babel sounds
The blessèd angels sing.

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on,
By prophet-bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world send back the song
Which now the angels sing.

Now that I am approaching the age Dad was when he first mentioned his love for this song, I think I see what he was talking about. The first verse may not invoke the name of Christ, but its reference to the angel’s announcement to the shepherds offers a clear inference to the birth of Christ and its accompanying hope for peace.

The following three verses remind us that the song of the angels continues to sound over the cares and chaos of the world whether it be the confusion of the world in general (verse two), the violence of war (verse three) or the heavy burdens we bear (verse four). It’s a call, if you will, to be still and know that God is God (see Psalm 46:10).

The Scriptures tell us that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord and it is to this day that the final stanza looks. It reminds me of one of my Dad’s favorite passages of Scripture that talks of the troubles we have in this life being temporary in comparison to the eternal peace we will experience one day.

Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, because when we are clothed, we will not be found naked. For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. (2 Corinthians 5:1-5)