Creator of the Stars of Night (ELW 245, focus on verse 4)
1 Creator of the stars of night,
your people’s everlasting light,
O Christ, redeemer of us all,
we pray you hear us when we call.
2 When this old world drew on toward night,
you came; but not in splendor bright,
not as a monarch, but the child
of Mary, blessed mother mild.
3 At your great name, O Jesus, now
all knees must bend, all hearts must bow:
all things on earth with one accord,
like those in heav’n, shall call you Lord.
4 Come in your holy might, we pray,
redeem us for eternal day;
defend us while we dwell below
from all assaults of our dread foe.
5 To God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, Three in One,
praise, honor, might, and glory be
from age to age eternally. Amen.
Text: Latin hymn, 9th cent.; tr. Hymnal 1940, alt.
Text © 1940 Church Pension Fund, admin. Church Publishing Incorporated. All rights reserved.
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Devotion
I often wonder how Mary ever slept at night knowing that the baby she carried in her womb and eventually held in her arms would redeem the whole world from sin and death. It seems people expected God to send a Messiah full of power and royalty and military might, and yet, so long ago, God surprised us by sending a dependent, vulnerable, tiny baby, who had a typical Jewish woman from Nazareth in Galilee as a mom, to be the Savior of us all.
Verse 4 in this hymn invites us to pray for God to come again in “holy might.” I wonder how many of us still imagine Jesus coming as a big, powerful, charismatic, and dignified leader, ready to take down all the powers and principalities in one fell swoop? Might we miss Jesus if we’re looking for that kind of Savior? Might we miss Jesus if we ignore the margins of society and the most vulnerable among us?
Prayer
Come quickly, Lord Jesus, and make all that is broken whole again. Amen.