{"id":1327,"date":"2009-12-25T19:00:39","date_gmt":"2009-12-25T19:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=1327"},"modified":"2010-12-22T11:42:35","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T16:42:35","slug":"7466","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/12\/25\/7466\/","title":{"rendered":"The Night of First Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO, IL (December 25, 2009) \u2013 The following adaptation of a familiar Christmas poem was shared by Steve and Marti Burger during a recent chapel service at Evangelical Covenant Church offices. It is set to the cadence of <em>\u2018Twas the Night Before Christmas<\/em>.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<strong>The Night of First Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Twas the night of first Christmas, when all through the land<br \/>\nPeople were travelling \u2018cross rocks, hills and sand;<br \/>\nA man and young woman walked in through a gate<br \/>\nTo Bethlehem city, for now it was late.<\/p>\n<p>Joseph and Mary had traveled so far,<br \/>\nAnd above them burned brightly the large Christmas Star;<br \/>\nCrowds they were scurrying this way and that,<br \/>\nLooking for shelter to lay down their mats.<\/p>\n<p>Poor Mary was tired, about to give birth,<br \/>\nSo the inn is where Joseph was headed to first;<br \/>\nJostled, bumped into as they went to the door,<br \/>\nMary was hurting, exhausted and sore.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo room,\u201d said the innkeeper, then noticed their plight,<br \/>\n\u201cYou may sleep with the animals, but just for this night;\u201d<br \/>\nOutside the city, the shepherds watched sheep,<br \/>\nAs they slept on the hillside, fast asleep.<\/p>\n<p>Swirling through sheep-laden hills rushed night breeze,<br \/>\nAs shepherds, save watchmen, quenched fires, took their ease;<br \/>\nWhen what to their wondering eyes should appear,<br \/>\nDazzling light come from heaven and an angel draw near.<\/p>\n<p>Shepherds filled with confusion and fear at the sight,<br \/>\nCould not hide in the shadows, because of the light;<br \/>\nFear not said the angel, for good news do I bring,<br \/>\nOf a glorious Savior and newly born king.<\/p>\n<p>He lies in a manger, in Bethlehem town,<br \/>\nIn the hay among animals is where he is found;<br \/>\nA great company of angels appeared in the sky,<br \/>\nSinging glory from heaven to the Savior most high.<\/p>\n<p>Peace on earth was the chorus the angels did sing,<br \/>\nTo God be the Glory through the heavens did ring;<br \/>\nMore rapid than eagles the angels had come,<br \/>\nAnd then in a twinkling, their singing was done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s go,\u201d said the shepherds, \u201cfor the night gets too old,<br \/>\nSee this thing that has happened of which we were told;\u201d<br \/>\nSo they hurried to Bethlehem seeking the Lord,<br \/>\nIn a manger they found him, through darkness light poured.<\/p>\n<p>Pure love, grace, forgiveness, in skin now was birthed,<br \/>\nGod\u2019s promise fulfilled in coming to earth;<br \/>\nHe was wrapped up in cloth from his head to his toes<br \/>\nAnd all they could see were his eyes and his nose.<\/p>\n<p>The shepherd then said, \u201cAngels guided us here<br \/>\nTo worship the Savior, so please do not fear;\u201d<br \/>\nHaving praised their new king, shepherds bowed, did depart,<br \/>\nAnd Mary she treasured their words in her heart.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Twas the night of first Christmas and the shepherds all ran,<br \/>\nTo tell of the Savior throughout all the land;<br \/>\nThere was Mary and Joseph, and animals too,<br \/>\nMore than baby was Jesus, he is Savior for you!<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-report-this\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire?moderation_action=report_form&#038;object_type=post&#038;object_id=1327&#038;width=250&#038;height=300\" class=\"thickbox\" title=\"Report This Post\">Report This Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CHICAGO, IL (December 25, 2009) \u2013 The following adaptation of a familiar Christmas poem was shared by Steve and Marti Burger during a recent chapel service at Evangelical Covenant Church offices. It is set to the cadence of \u2018Twas the Night Before Christmas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Night of First Christmas - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/12\/25\/7466\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Night of First Christmas - Covenant Newswire Archives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CHICAGO, IL (December 25, 2009) \u2013 The following adaptation of a familiar Christmas poem was shared by Steve and Marti Burger during a recent chapel service at Evangelical Covenant Church offices. 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