Christmas Mystery

We have now reached the last week of Advent, which also means that I am posting the last of my Christmas hymns. For most of my hymns, I use all or part of the first line as a title. But this one is instead entitled “Christmas Mystery,” a title which more or less summarizes what I love about Christmas.

 When I was 10, my father volunteered to preach at a church we had been going to for about four months. It was near Christmas time, so he was preaching on the Incarnation. One part of his sermon particularly stood out to me. He listed a series of paradoxes about what happened when Jesus was born: “The One who had no beginning is born, the Almighty becomes weak, the unchangeable God changes, the One who has everything gets something he didn’t have before – a human nature.” I was blown away by the amazingness of Christmas, and by how much of a mystery it is. For years, that awe remained with me, mostly unconsciously, until I began writing hymns. This hymn tries, as best I can, to capture the beauty of Jesus, especially in the miracle of His birth.

Christmas Mystery

He who forged Earth’s iron core

And scattered stars to distant skies

Came shattered beauty to restore

And answer lost ones’ mournful cries.

A God who stands among the weak

To lift each burden that they face

To lift away their bondage bleak

And give them strength in holy grace.

The star of hope for all the years

Though spoken of through ages past

Lies born in dust and blood and tears

Without His glorious trumpets’ blast

Yet in His tiny hand He holds

The power that built the mountains high

His glory shatters earthly molds

As angels’ voices split the sky

The angel heralds call out clear

To tell us of the infant King

Who comes to crush the power of fear

And let the notes of justice ring

Yet first He comes to serve and die

Not yet to take His rightful place

That those who chose to crucify

Their king might still receive his grace.

He calls us now with signs and stars

To find the child born a king

To give him all that once was ours

And songs of love and praise to sing

So as we journey through the night

And seek our true Desire’s star

We find that Jesus, through His might

Has sought us from our exile far.