Christmas
Tune: Sussex Carol
- From hills and lands and planets far,
Come shepherds, kings and pointing star.
They find the place where God lays bare
The mystery of his gift so rare.
To Bethlehem they have been led,
God’s child becomes ‘the house of bread’. - God chooses outcasts, strangers, here,
His common touch makes all this clear;
A stable manger, nails and wood,
Prefigures his own painful rood.
Old Eden’s garden flowers restored;
This infant Adam is our Lord. - There’s Mary, and those Gentiles wise,
This moment is their journey’s prize.
She trusts the angel and the light
Of God’s own counsel clear and bright.
The speechless child is God’s true word;
Her son, her brother, is her Lord. - The watchful shepherds bring to birth
New lambs to tread God’s precious earth.
This work makes their rough hands unclean,
But holiness is not so mean.
God calls these strangers to the feast,
His flock must come from great and least. - Remember Joseph’s silent part,
He makes the best, and serves God’s art;
He stirs the pot and cleaves the wood;
And does the things a father should.
Safe Egypt is his wise intent,
Until all Herod’s life is spent. - Christ Jesus has a family tree
Which shows that God sets all flesh free;
Those Gentile mothers in the line
Join regal fathers as a sign
That God redeems what once was sin,
And brings all those outside within. - This Christmas time, let us rejoice,
For God’s dear Son gives us the choice
To live our lives so graciously,
That we may find eternity.
Room, room, make room for Christ to stay,
He seeks to lodge in us today.
© John Beer 2001