Emmanuel, God With Us

It has been an interesting Christmas shock. I'm not sure whether it was school shellshock or the state of global affairs or something even bigger - I'm not sure what that would be - or something smaller, like my metabolism, but I was just not into it this year the way I normally am. I normally love Christmas and just want the whole world to perk up to hear the angels songs again for a little while, knowing they might be listening, I usually sing louder. This year, I don't know - I guess I was just listening, listening, and didn't hear much.

So strange.

I thought of this song - it always makes me get a little choked up, and it's funny because usually this is not a band that makes me think much, but it's Point of Grace's song, "Emmanuel, God With Us." The lyrics talk about a woman left alone after her family is gone, spending a lonely christmas, when someone else invites her to become part of their christmas gathering. Simple, really. The chorus says this:

Oh, Emmanuel, God with us
Spirit revealed in us
That we may be your hope to the world
Oh Emmanuel, God with us
With a light to break the darkness
That we may share your hope to the world
Emmanuel, be God with us
Be God in us.

Selah.

Advent pt. 2

We actually got snow yesterday, and some of it is still on the ground. Everyone I talked to yesterday was at least a little bit enchanted by the snow. Speaking of enchantment, the Narnia film opens this weekend, and I'm planning to go see it with friends.

Today's song has been on my mind a lot. It's simple, not sacred, but special. "The Happiest Christmas" by Michael W. Smith has just this many words:

Oh the happiest Christmas
Is a homecoming Christmas
With the snow flutering down 'til the world seems new

Bright candles burning
Old friends returning
The wishes of children coming true.

And the happiest wishes
Are just old fashioned wishes
May your days be merry, your sorrows be small.

May the ones you love be near you;
That's the happiest Christmas of all.

I celebrate Christmas as Christ's birth, and I love a lot of the things that orbit around that celebration - wishes, candles, snow, homecomings, friends, merry-making. I am already enjoying it. To anyone reading this, I wish you a merry Christmas, too.

KMM

"The Happiest Christmas," by Myles Rudge and Ted Dicks.