A Bethlehem miracle

Turn to me and be saved…for I am God, and there is no other (Isaiah 45:22).

Early winter, 1755—the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. The pioneers were under threat of an attack by the Conestoga Indians, who were planning to exterminate the settlers. So they fled for refuge to the nearby town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, a Moravian colony which had established a treaty of peace with the Conestoga. But the tribe had been aroused to such a frenzy of hatred that they broke the truce and planned a bloody attack on the village. As Christmas approached, signal fires flared brightly on the surrounding hillsides. Tribal drums rumbled a fearful rhythm. War whoops, echoing through the night, filled the settlers with horror.

Christmas dawned, a Christmas of sinking fear. Yet there was still enough courage in the pioneer’s hearts to carry on a time-honored tradition; the people of Bethlehem, young and old alike, gathered to sing early morning praise to the newborn Christ Child. Eventually, the singing ended—seldom, perhaps, have songs of Christmas joy been sung under greater crushing weight—and the worshippers returned to the grim suspense of waiting for a Christmas Day attack. But scarcely had the fighting men of the village resumed their posts when, to their joy and astonishment, they watched the Indians break camp and disappear from sight into the distant, wooded hillsides. Miraculously, it seemed, the feared bloody massacre had been averted.

Later on, when peaceful relations had been reestablished, the reason for the retreat was revealed. While the chiefs were gathered in their council of war planning the attack, the wind carried the sound of the Christmas Carols to the wigwams on the hills, and those sweet melodies soothed the hearts of the enraged warriors. Thus on Christmas Day, as the settlers acknowledged allegiance to the Christ Child, they found deliverance and safety. And in that Pennsylvania Bethlehem, God blessed their Christmas faith as their families were spared and their individual lives saved.

Our triune God calls our attention once again this Christmas to the birth of His Son. And as He points us to the Babe of Bethlehem, He says, Turn to me and be saved…for I am God, and there is no other. Merry Christmas.