{"id":804,"date":"2010-12-19T17:21:52","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T17:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html"},"modified":"2010-12-19T17:21:52","modified_gmt":"2010-12-19T17:21:52","slug":"how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html","title":{"rendered":"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

One of the Christmas legends I grew up with that I hear no more and fear is being lost is the story of how the Nightingale learned to sing. Here is how I remember it:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deep inside the cave where Jesus was born there was a little nest on the ground made of leaves and branches. The creature that lived in that nest was a plain brown bird, shy and afraid, for he had nothing to distinguish him from other birds or to be proud of. He spent his days in the bushes, searching for berries, fruits, insects. At night he returned to to the ramshackle nest in the back of the cave where it was always dark.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One night the brown bird was awakened by a light as bright as sunlight at noon. The cave was filled with the sound of angels singing, and the little brown bird, who had never sung before, joined in with the angels, singing after them the song they were singing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In some parts of the word it is said, to this day, when the sun goes down and a hush falls on the trees in the garden, one can hear this little brown bird repeating the song it learned from the angels so long ago. And though the bird repeats the same song over and over again, it sounds forever new and different.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The song the Nightingale learned to sing so enchantingly is this: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward all.”  <\/p>\n

\n

\n
Thanks to Len Sweet for the story.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the Christmas legends I grew up with that I hear no more and fear is being lost is the story of how the Nightingale learned to sing. Here is how I remember it:   Deep inside the cave where Jesus was born there was a little nest on the ground made of leaves…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-swaziland"],"yoast_head":"\nHow the Nightingale Learned to Sing - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the Christmas legends I grew up with that I hear no more and fear is being lost is the story of how the Nightingale learned to sing. Here is how I remember it:   Deep inside the cave where Jesus was born there was a little nest on the ground made of leaves…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-12-19T17:21:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc4\/hs1215.snc4\/156762_470473786790_583321790_6250747_1166254_n.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing - Red Letters","og_description":"One of the Christmas legends I grew up with that I hear no more and fear is being lost is the story of how the Nightingale learned to sing. Here is how I remember it:   Deep inside the cave where Jesus was born there was a little nest on the ground made of leaves…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html","og_site_name":"Red Letters","article_published_time":"2010-12-19T17:21:52+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc4\/hs1215.snc4\/156762_470473786790_583321790_6250747_1166254_n.jpg"}],"author":"Tom Davis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html","name":"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing - Red Letters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc4\/hs1215.snc4\/156762_470473786790_583321790_6250747_1166254_n.jpg","datePublished":"2010-12-19T17:21:52+00:00","dateModified":"2010-12-19T17:21:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc4\/hs1215.snc4\/156762_470473786790_583321790_6250747_1166254_n.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net\/hphotos-ak-snc4\/hs1215.snc4\/156762_470473786790_583321790_6250747_1166254_n.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/12\/how-the-nightingale-learned-to-sing.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How the Nightingale Learned to Sing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/","name":"Red Letters","description":"Christian, Christian Inspiration, Christian News, Christian Activism News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/c78d22af30aa2e0860a621fadf855b92","name":"Tom Davis","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b5c\/b5c5842c5b6dd6c51062873d0bb1dfafx96.jpg","caption":"Tom Davis"},"description":"Tom Davis currently serves as CEO of Children's HopeChest (www.hopechest.org), a global orphan care ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs. A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}