From angels bending near the earth, to touch their harps of gold.
"Peace on the earth, good will to men," From heav'n's all-gracious King.
The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.
Yet with the woes of sin and strife the world has suffered long,
Beneath the angel strain have rolled two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring:
O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing!
I'm not kidding you: Merganthaller Waisleywillow was the name of a real person. He was a young Welshman who made a trip to Paris in 1935, and while there he toured the Louvre, the magnificent museum which houses such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa and other wonderful works of art.
What made the tour remarkable is that he finished the tour in seven minutes. Seriously. He “toured” more than 600,00 square feet in seven minutes. Others, hearing of Waisleywillow's feat of covering the enormous treasure house of art in such a short time, set out to break the record.
Tex Houston (yes, that’s his real name) of Oklahoma (no, not Texas) knocked two seconds off Waisleywillow's time. More recently, another American, Peter Stone, used special track shoes and took a different route, finishing his “tour” in five minutes and fifty-six seconds.
But we have to wonder: how much of the magnificence of that collection of more than 380,000 objects did they actually see?
I wonder if Christmas, the way the world observes Christmas, has done the same for you. Have you rushed through this season of the year thus far without pausing long enough to “hear the angels sing”?
Let us remember that Luke 2:19 reads that “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She pondered them, which could also be translated that she “treasured them.” Are you storing up the treasures of Christmas in your heart? That just isn’t possible, unless you hush the noise.
So don’t be like Merganthaller Waisleywillow, who missed wonderful treasures because he was in a hurry. Slow down this Christmas, and hear the angels sing.
—Rocky Henriques, www.uticabc.com