A Christmas Miracle
Christmas is the season of perpetual hope. There are miracles on 34th street, Grinches returning roast beasts, wonderful lives, and even ghosts. But just to show that anything can happen at Christmas, I’m going to do a real Christmas blog for once, and it’s even on one of my favorite Christmas songs.
If you want to listen to the song, you can click here to listen to it on spotify. Chris only used two verses in this recording but he nailed the feeling of the song with the two that he chose. The lyrics are:
O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
shall come to thee O Israel.O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Ok, I can fully admit that this is not the cheeriest Christmas song, but I really can’t think of a better Advent song. Advent is all about the waiting of Jesus to come. First it was about the second coming of Jesus and now has been tied together with the birth of Jesus. We often play the part of Ricky Bobby and just want to focus on the 8 pound 6 oz baby Jesus because it’s our favorite time of year and we can celebrate. But we miss the context of the 600 years of waiting from when Isaiah prophesied about the Messiah to his actual birth. Israel was conquered and exiled, their people scattered across the known world. The only hope the exiles had was for God to do something miraculous. Yet the miraculous didn’t happen. Not when they were exiled in Assyria or even when they were exiled to Babylon or conquered by the Persians and Greeks. It was 6 centuries, and dozens of generations before the promise was fulfilled.
The words of the first verse are referring to a literal time and place in Biblical history. It acknowledges that they were mourning, lonely and separated from where they wanted to be and that in that state the only hope is Jesus. This moves into the refrain of rejoicing because Emmanuel, God with us, is coming to Israel. I think most people take this line and in their heads it’s actual rejoicing, but for me it’s the head trying to convince the heart that it will be ok. It’s living in the messiness and despair of exile while clinging to a not yet seen hope which is perfectly seen in the second verse. If they have already rejoiced, why would there be a plea for God to have to cheer their spirits and disperse gloomy clouds?
Christmas isn't just a celebration of joyful moments but a recognition of the shadows that precede the light. It's about acknowledging the expanse of time, the generations that waited, and the faith that persisted through the darkest hours. The beauty of this song lies not only in its melody but in its portrayal of the human experience—waiting, longing, and holding on to hope against all odds.