Word Count: 457

The Perfect Voice

As a child I was intrigued with the words of the classic Christmas hymn, “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Did you wonder, as I did, how a night could possibly be…silent? Even in the rural South, where I was privileged to grow up, the darkest of night was teeming with sounds—night birds, a plethora of insects, nocturnal creatures prodding their way through the woods, the barely discernible rustle of yet the gentlest breeze caressing pines and oaks alike. But at the Birth of Christ, the writer of this hymn was inspired to pen that this night, like none before and none to come thereafter, would be Silent.

I have come to believe that Nature’s perfect silence fell that night in submission to The Perfect Voice—paradoxically uttered in a Newborn Babe’s first-drawn breath and resultant cry. It was, indeed, Nature’s act of obeisance to the Voice of Nature’s God.

The Perfect Voice was recognized by all of Nature surrounding the Judean hillside that incomparable night as the selfsame Voice of the Divine Fiat heard at the very beginning of time: “Let there be…” Furthermore, in Nature’s setting of the Garden of Eden, the scriptures state that The Voice which brought about all of existence through His spoken Word, also interacted with His Creation—for in Genesis it is recorded that the Voice of the Lord God came “walking in the Garden in the cool of the day.” Have you ever heard of a walking voice? Why did the inspired writ so describe God’s Presence in the Garden in such a manner? I believe it is because the voice is the communicative part of a being and, from the very beginning, the Creator was letting his creation know that He wants to talk to them—daily.

On that Silent and Holy Night millennia ago, His Perfect Voice joined with the mortal flesh of an infant to uniquely speak to us. Can you fathom the stillness of that night when Omnipotence gasped for breath and cried? Can you dare to believe that there was a self-imposed silence by startled creatures of the night as they recognized their Creator’s Voice? Can we humans, today, as we anticipate Christmas, silence ourselves enough to hear His Perfect Voice speak to us as the young lad Samuel did in the Old Testament times: “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth…” ? I truly hope we can, for communication with us is the reason His Perfect Voice came in the temple of the body of the Baby Jesus. There is much He wants us to hear in the stillness of even our darkest nights: “But the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him” (Habakkuk 2:20).

Joanne Carraway is a community writer who resides in Oak Grove.