Every Stone Shall Cry
How the Holy Land Itself
Rejoiced at the Lord’s Birth
The Rev. Jeremy F. Simons
Lessons: Deuteronomy 28:9,11-12; Luke 2:1-7, 19:37,38,40
Arcana Coelestia 1447, 6516; Divine Love and Wisdom 345
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Jesus answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent,
the stones would immediately cry out.” Luke 19.40
he stones did not cry out as the Lord entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
Nor did they cry out when the Lord was born on Christmas Day. There
were people who did not keep silent but rejoiced at His coming. But on
Christmas Day there is a sense in which not only the human race but all of
creation rejoices as the God of the universe is born into the world.
The inclusion of all of creation in the joy of Christmas is reflected in the
imagery of the messianic prophecies, in many of our Christmas hymns, and in
the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines. Isaiah wrote:
Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it! For the
LORD has redeemed Jacob, and glorified Himself in Israel. (Isaiah 44:23)
We also sing:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king . . . while fields and
floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy.
Mountains, fields, forests and trees can’t actually rejoice, sing or repeat the
sounding joy. But the truth is that every part of creation is connected together
in a beautiful and miraculous way. The Incarnation is not just about us but
about the whole world. His coming affects even the physical earth itself.
Our topic on this Christmas morning is the way that the Lord brought
salvation to the world as a single entity, the sense in which all of creation
participates in the joy of Christmas.
One of our most-loved Christmas hymns is “Calm on the Listening Ear of
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