Creator of the Stars of Night (ELW 245, focus on verse 5)
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.
Reprinted under OneLicense.net #A730924
Devotion
We have a problem with the Trinity. It is a central teaching of Christian faith. But for many, it makes God seem so static, aloof, and abstract. It becomes a complicated math problem as we try to explain God’s three-in-oneness.
Maybe it is better to begin thinking about God through the lens of Christmas. In the birth of Jesus, we are reminded that God is not motionless and above us, but rather on the move and in our midst. The dynamic and active God of Israel demonstrates the great depths of divine love for us by becoming fully human—a squirmy, burpy, and crying infant. He lies in a wooden manger, and he will die for us on a wooden cross.
Prayer
Holy God, you are never greater than when you became small for our sakes. Grant us the faith to see in the infant Jesus the depths of your love and mercy. Amen.