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My Name is Doxology

“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.”
Luke 2:20

December 26 Devotional

By Rev. David Berry, Associate Pastor of Mission

Hi, my name is Doxology. It is a Greek name, Doxa. You probably know my English name better. In English, I am Glory. On this first day after the birth of Jesus if you are listening you can still hear my name echoing off the hills of Bethlehem and through the valley.

I am Doxology!

I am singing like rolling thunder. Glory to God! Glory to God in the Highest! I am Doxology! Christmas Tide is my special season, although if you are listening you can hear my name in every season, in every age, through all of eternity. In Good times and in hard times, in joyful times and in times of sorrow, you will hear my name.

Of course, some times are easier than others to remember the glory of God. One of the easiest times was in the fields with the shepherds on the night that Jesus was born. After the angel appeared to them and told them the news about God’s great gift to the world, I was the one who summoned the heavenly host so they could sing, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:14).

I am Doxology!

I went with the shepherds when they then hurried off to see the child, and I was with them afterwards as well. In fact, that’s why Luke, the gospel writer, recorded, “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen ...” (Luke 2:20).

I am Doxology!

You can hear my name in the hardest of times. Times when things have not gone well, when dreams have been squashed, when you’ve gotten confirmation of a dreaded diagnosis, when Christmas comes and you can’t be with your family, or when this Christmas is the first one without a loved one who died during the year. Indeed, my work brings divine perspective to the difficult times.

I am Doxology!

That’s why the prophet Amos, in the space between his hard words about Israel rejecting God’s correction and his lament for Israel’s sins, praised God “who forms the mountains, creates the wind, reveals his thoughts to mortals, makes the morning darkness and treads on the heights of the earth ...” (Amos 4:13).

So yes, I am Doxology. My work is also for hard times. In fact, what better time to remember the glory of the God who, as Paul wrote, “is able to strengthen you” than when the going gets rough? What better time do we need to be able to recall that God “by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20).

I am Doxology!

You can hear my name through all of eternity. The angels sing their doxologies throughout the heavens. “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever!” (Revelation 7:12).

If the angels spend eternity giving God the glory, then what’s keeping us from doing the same, in the present time?