Written by Twyla Arant from The Village Church.
Years ago, I was responsible for choosing music for a carol-sing that took place before
our late service on Christmas Eve at a small Episcopal church. Some familiar carols would be included, but it was also an opportunity to share some of the lesser-known hymns of Christmas. I discovered an American hymn written in 1957 which became a personal favorite. The melody is both warm and haunting, with an interlude between verses that gives time to absorb words just sung. The mood suits the lyrics, from the birth of Christ through His death and resurrection – the fulfillment of Christmas. There is a line of text repeated in every verse that spoke to me: And every stone shall cry. The stones cry out as the sky glows at Jesus’ birth, as He rides into David’s city, as He is pierced, and as He is lifted up to reconcile the worlds. It portrays the whole point of Christmas, remembering that God came as human to save humanity and endured the Passion and rejection and overcame death to give us all eternal life.
A stable lamp is lighted whose glow shall wake the sky; The stars shall bend their voices, and ev’ry stone shall cry and straw like gold shall shine; A barn shall harbor heaven, a stall become a shrine. This child through David’s city shall ride in triumph by; The palm shall strew its branches, and ev’ry stone shall cry though heavy, dull, and dumb, and lie within the roadway to pave His kingdom come. Yet He shall be forsaken and yielded up to die; The sky shall groan and darken, and ev’ry stone shall cry for stony hearts of men: God’s blood upon the spearhead, God’s love refused again. But now, as at the ending, the low is lifted high; The stars shall bend their voices, and ev’ry stone shall cry in praises of the Child by whose descent among us the worlds are reconciled.
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