Alright, this doesn't really have anything to do with lullabys or cradles. This one is a beautiful song speaking from the perspective of the magi who came to visit Jesus approximately two years after his birth. Even if they weren't there on the day, they are inextricably linked to the Christmas story.
I don't have much to wax eloquent on today regarding the thoughts of the wisemen, or their perspectives on the matter. I will say that we witness in Scripture a group of very humble and, indeed, wise men. They followed God's warning and did not return to Herod with the location of Jesus' whereabouts. They worshiped the child even though they found him in a lowly little town, and probably in a lowly house too. They gave him gifts that would have been of immense practical value for Mary and Joseph as well as having great symbolic resonance, and they acurately recognized Jesus as king of the Jews while his own people were still scratching their heads over it.
There may have been three, there may have been seven, we don't know, but I often think how much I should have liked to meet these men and have a conversation with them about everything, not just the star and how they made it to Judea. They must have been fascinating, insightful individuals. Perhaps I shall meet them in heaven.
For now, this lovely modern song written for choir will have to do. Getting to sing this in concert three years ago was one of my favourite moments.
There really isn't a good quality version of this on youtube, this is one of the better ones, though it's much nicer with more voices. Here are the words for reference:
Where is He, O where is He?
His star blazes in the night;
As we chase the changing skies,
He is hiding from our sight.
Can you tell us where he lies?
We would worship Him tonight,
And will journey 'till we find,
And our search is turned to sight.
Your guiding light shows us the way,
We see your morning star ascend!
To you, dear Christ, all searches come,
In You our journey finds its end.
The star beams its golden ray,
Over sleepy Bethlehem.
Where with joy we find the child,
And with gifts we worship him.
While we thought we came to you
In a little starlit place,
It was you who came to us,
Christ the glory of God's face.
I just love those words, especially the last verse. Many of us, at the beginning of our Christian walk imagine that we found Christ, but the longer we walk with Him the more we realize that it was He who came to us all along. That, friends is what Christmas is about. Emmanuel, God with us, God come down to us, wretched as we are we could not reach out to Him. What glory and what grace.
1 comments:
Beautiful song, thanks for sharing!
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