The Birth of Praise

DAILY BYTE

My struggle about praise in the midst of darkness recently came to a head when I went deep into a squatter camp to deliver a present to a baby boy. The young mother met me at my car just outside of the camp, the baby wrapped in a blanket to shield him from the Cape Town wind, which I hear was unseasonably strong for December. Holding my package tightly, I began to follow her home, weaving in and out of shacks built so closely together that my shoulders almost touched the outside walls. It stank of improper sewage and the air was close to suffocating, as if too many people were trying to breathe the available oxygen so that there was a shortage. Through the dirt and the mess, I continued on following her, clutching my gift and hoping this maze of a journey would swiftly come to an end, realizing though that our destination would not offer much more.

The sun had been shining when I left my car, but as I passed over the threshold into her meager home the air turned dark and still, as if I were entering a cave. I presented my gifts: baby clothes, a few bibs, rash ointment, and held the child, Linbokuhle, whose name means, "waiting for good."

As I looked down at him I realized that I was in the presence of new life, full of possibility and promise, born in a lowly shack in a cramped squatter camp because there was no room "in the inn." As I made my way out to my car, I wondered if this was how the wise men felt... Bearing their gifts, they traveled far, motivated by a star, by a promise of a new king. But when they got closer and closer the scenery changed and their surroundings looked less and less fitting of such potential, of such promise.

Being wise though, they were not deterred by the humility of what they found, for they could see past the surface, past the smell, past the poverty. When they praised God at Jesus’ birth, their praise sprung from a place of great darkness. Yet, because it was of God their praise promised to burst beyond the bounds of darkness into the light of the new day, which would surely follow.

The wise men came to praise the living God and discovered that in order to praise him where he was, they must journey to a place that had no apparent joy or hope, a place where most “respectable” people would never go, a place not fitting for any of us to lay our heads, let alone the savior of the world... but it was there where true praise of God took place. Found in the tension of a broken, inhospitable world and a new life, full of potential, holding that child, my own praise was born.

Where is praise being born in your life? Where are you looking for God?

GUIDING SCRIPTURE

Matthew 2:9b-11a

And there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage.

PRAY AS YOU GO

O almighty God, by the birth of your holy child Jesus you gave us a great light to dawn on our darkness. Grant that in his light we may see light. Bestow upon us that most excellent gift of love to all people, so that the likeness of your Son may be formed in us, and that we may have the ever brightening hope of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen.
- Revised from The Book of Worship, 1965