The phrase above, attributed tongue-in-cheek to some ancient Jewish scholar, goes to the point of how God can pull certain “disconnected” situations together in some wonderful ways. This is the time of year when the carol “Silent Night” is heard in homes, malls, churches, and from those carolers going house to house.
In 1818 a band of roving actors came to the little Austrian village of Oberndorf for their annual presentation of the Christmas story. The play was scheduled for St. Nicholas Church, but the organ bellows had been eaten away by mice and could not be repaired in time. The play was presented in a private home instead, and the church’s assistant pastor, Josef Mohr, attended.
Mohr was so moved by the sincerity of the actors and the simplicity of the play that he reflected on the real meaning of the Christmas story. As he walked home through the new-fallen snow, he looked down on the little village below. Moved by the beauty of the scene and the majestic silence of the wintry night, he thought back to that first Christmas, and a poem began to form in his mind-“Silent night, Holy night.”
Arriving home the pastor quickly wrote out the poem, thinking how he wished that his piece could be sung at the upcoming Christmas serve but he had no music. The next day Mohr took his verses to the church organist, Franz Gruber, who composed the music that very day.
On Christmas day, with the organ still broken, Gruber and Mohr sang their new song to the little church accompanied by guitar. And that, likely, would have been the end of that except for one other thing.
Several weeks later an organ repairman came to the church. After he finished his work Gruber sat down to test the instrument. He “just happened” to play his new Christmas composition as the first number. The repairman was deeply touched by the music and took it back to his Alpine village. There, a family of gifted Austrian singers, the Strasser sisters, picked up the song and started singing it throughout the countryside.
Silent Night quickly became a European favorite. It was translated into English in 1863, and first made its appearance in an American hymnal in 1871. Over 180 years since it was composed, it continues to bless and inspire people-you and me included!
God continues to allow “disconnected” circumstances to bring surprising results. For you it might be a chance meeting with someone, or a vehicle breakdown that puts you in a place not anticipated, or an unexpected opportunity that presents itself. Keep you mind attuned to the things of Jesus, this Christ child of lowly birth some 2000 years ago, and you will agree that “coincidence is not a kosher word!”
