He came down…

At Christmas time we can become too familiar with the words of the songs and carols we sing; like when we do anything many times, it becomes automatic and we don’t think about what we are doing. We drive a car or write a letter and don’t have to stop and think about every single move we make along the way; we just do it.

The same can happen as we sing songs; especially at Christmas time; with many of the carols written in forms of English that is no-longer used; we just gloss over them and enjoy the melody and the whole sentiment of enjoying singing at Christmas, but don’t engage with the amazing truths that the Christmas carols that we sing bring to us.

In the top 10 of Christmas carols, (you can comment below on what are your favourite carols and why) I’m sure the following would definitely appear – ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing‘, ‘Joy to the World‘, ‘O Come all ye Faithful‘, ‘Once in Royal David’s City‘, ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem‘, ‘Silent Night‘ and of course ‘Away in a Manger‘.

Any of those songs above in the Christmas list can be sung without us really thinking about what they mean, to us and to the world around us.

Let’s look at some of these lyrics and see how they can reveal to us the amazing wonder and good news of Christmas: ‘Joy to the World , the Lord is come! Let earth receive her King; Let every heart prepare Him room,..’ – wow! This song declares that Jesus is the King of the whole world and encourages us to let Him into our hearts; what a brilliant message at Christmas.

‘How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven. No ear may hear His coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.’ – I love these lines from ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem‘, they truly convey to me the wonder of Christmas, that Jesus didn’t come with pomp and ceremony, but humbly and simply and wants to be a part of our lives.

Now the impetus for this post came after watching a video by the Christian outreach ministry ‘Speak Life‘, that was titled ‘He came down’ and refers back to the line in ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ – ‘He came down to earth from heaven, who is Lord and God of all.’

That single line really impacted me, like I’d never read it before.

‘He came down…who is Lord and God of all.’ This tiny baby, God in the flesh. God with us.

The earth shakes, the heavens roar at the audacious love of our Saviour.

God become man – ‘pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel’ (from ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’). It makes me want to kneel in awe and wonder before my Creator, lying in a manger, wrapped in swaddling, small, humble, fragile, yet fully God.

Amazing.

So as you prepare to celebrate Christmas, take time to be awed and amazed by the God who came down.

Be blessed and a Merry Christmas!

(The original video that inspired this Blog post)