[16] 82 Long Ago Prophets Knew

‘Journey ends! Where afar
Bethlem shines, like a star,
Stable door stands ajar.
Unborn son of Mary
Saviour, do not tarry!’

So that’s it, I’m here on the sofa, tired but happy, with the first free time since the start of my birthday celebrations yesterday. Hence the tardiness of this post, apologies for this. As well as the physical journey to, around, and back from town, it’s the end of the journey of my youth, I guess. I don’t mean to sound morbid, and I mean it in the best possible way, but for me the childhood chapter of my life is now closed. I do feel a certain sense of gravity that comes with adulthood, and also as if a destination has been reached.

This final verse of a really great carol runs in my head like a film. The text changes location very rapidly; it’s as if one long camera shot flying from one place to the Holy Land has been sped up many times, and there’s a rush of wind and excitement. Lamps and stars leave trails of light as you whizz by. In line 1, Bethlehem is ‘afar’, but already by line 3 we can see the very stable door, and in 4 we’re inside, watching Mary, waiting for our Saviour. The over-arching journey of the song has taken us from ‘Long ago prophets knew’ in the very first line far, far in the past, to the very present destination of Christ’s birth.

We can go a step further than this. My 21st will not be my last birthday (touch wood), and Christ’s birth is the start of a new story as well as a resolution of an old one. The chorus for the first three verses says ‘When he comes / Who will make him welcome?’ but this last chorus changes to ‘Jesus comes / We will make him welcome!’. Notice it doesn’t say ‘Jesus is coming’, but rather ‘Jesus comes’, to imply that it’s a continuous thing. Just as yesterday marked the end of my childhood, it marked the start of adulthood. In the same way, Jesus’ birth marks the resolution of prophetic tales from the Old Testament, and also marks the start of an ongoing narrative of redemption.

Sure, the ‘stable door’ is a destination, but it’s also a setting-off point. I suppose now all we need to do is work out what the next destination is… Thanks be to God!