By: Pastor David Grousnick

According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year. Male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December.

Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring.

Therefore, according to every historical rendition depicting Santa’s reindeer, every single one of them, from Rudolph to Blitzen had to be a female.

We should’ve known this because they were able to find their way.

This fact introduces us to the Gospel of Luke which, above all the books in the New Testament, highlights women.

One of my all-time favorite Christmas hymns is “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” It has been around since 1868 although it wasn’t formally used in churches until 1892.

It is a hymn which is packed with emotion, a song about the Christ Child, born to Mary, a song filled with the creative power of God intervening in history with the gift of a savior.

“O Little Town of Bethlehem,” depicts the Christmas story as a story of hope, a story where the divine and the human come together in an amazing but humble way. It is also an invitation for both the non-believer and the believer.

For the non-believer it is an announcement of what God has done and for the believer it is a challenge to increase one’s faith.

What might surprise you is how this great hymn came to be.

It was written by Phillips Brooks, Episcopal priest. Brooks was serving the Holy Trinity Church in the City of Brotherly Love (Philadelphia, PA). He had just returned from a trip to The Holy Land which inspired him to write the words. “When he returned to America, he still had Palestine singing in his soul.”

Brooks was a bachelor. His church organist and Sunday School superintendent, Lewis Redner was also a bachelor, and Brooks gave the words to him and asked him to create a tune for the upcoming Christmas celebration.

Redner procrastinated and struggled with the creation of a tune to go with the 5 stanzas that Brooks had written. It wasn’t until the night before the celebration that Redner got inspired in the middle of the night and created the song as we know it.

The following day, a group of 36 children and 6 Sunday school teachers introduced the song created by the 2 bachelors. That was on December 27th, 1968. It wasn’t published as an official hymn of the Episcopal Church until 1892.

The following January, Phillips Brooks died, never knowing the magnitude of the hymn that he created.

For some reason the 4th stanza has been dropped from the original score. “Where children pure and happy Pray to the blessed Child, Where misery cries out to thee, Son of the mother mild; Where charity stands watching And faith holds wide the door, The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, And Christmas comes once more.”

The stanza includes the line, “And faith holds wide the door.”

This hymn, like the story of the annunciation of Mary in the gospel of Luke 1:39-56, is a story about faith.

I pray you the greatest of Christmas joy and blessings! Keep the faith!

David Grousnick is the Pastor at the First Christian Church in Artesia.