Sunday, November 27, 2011

Borne of Wings of Stormy Grandeur

This year, for each Sunday of Advent, I will post a hymn I have written that relates to Advent or Christmas. Here is the first one.

Advent is the season in which we await Christmas, the celebration of God stepping into this world in the person of Jesus Christ. But at one time, Advent was also the season when we remember to wait for Jesus’s Second Coming, the time when He will return, not as a baby but as a king and judge the world. One hymn that exemplifies this is “Lo He Comes,” a hymn that served as one of my main sources of inspiration for this one.

My other inspiration came from a former hurricane that made its way to my home in Connecticut one autumn. Although the winds were no longer strong enough even to qualify it as a tropical storm, they were far stronger than most of the winds we get in Connecticut. It was the evening of a football game. As I practiced my routine with the marching band before, I felt a rush of excitement as the cool wind whipped past my face and as I watched a pile of dry brown leaves swirling between the band members, carried by a whirlwind.

Borne on Wings of Stormy Grandeur

Borne on wings of stormy grandeur
Now the Lord Most High descends
Suns dissolve before His splendor
Every mighty mountain bends.
Every tower built against him
Crashes to the foaming sea.
None now doubt that He is holy
Or deny his majesty.

Those who rose against their sovereign
Now before his armies flee,
Recognize their guilt and treason
When pure holiness they see.
Yet He runs to those who trusted
Holds them in a king’s embrace.
He who wields the sword of justice
Reaches out the hand of grace.

How is it that the eternal,
Infinite and great I Am
Could be bound within a body,
Gentle sacrificial Lamb?
Can infinity and weakness
In one soul be intertwined?
Why would He who spins the planets
Reach to touch my shadowed mind?

To the void His voice cried out once;
Every word He spoke came true.
Still His word, though now incarnate,
Sounds forth, making things anew.
He from Heaven to Earth descended
Us from Earth to Heaven to raise;
By His brokenness He mended
Souls who now adore and praise.

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