Happy Christmas Eve! I can’t believe how relaxed and on task I have felt the past week. Not stressed at all, everything coming together in it’s own time. I have made a concerted effort to bask in the glow of the season and soak up the anticipation of advent, especially the spiritual events and moments that give glory to God.
So continuing with a theme of finding and sharing wonderful new music, I just had to introduce you to a song and an artist I just discovered. The artist is Ross King and while his whole holiday album is terrific and unique, I am completely obsessed with his song Merry Christmas to All.
It’s pretty rare that our worship pastor leads us in a song I have never heard before in church, so on the first Sunday in December when the band sang Merry Christmas to All, my curiosity was piqued. The lyrics are magnificent…lyrics usually catch my attention first.
Can you hear the baby crying?
thats the sound of God denying himself
Taking on the form of man in flesh
Can you see the virgin weeping?
Thats the pain required for keeping Gods great promise
to deliver us from death
Merry Christmas to all mankind
The King is coming just in time
Into the dark, His light will shine so bright and beautiful
Merry Christmas to all
Can you hear the angels singing?
Oh thats the sound of freedom reigning and ringing
Like a bell declaring peace, the war has ended
Can you see the shepherds coming?
Like a prophecy, a symbol of His prodigal, returning
to the father who, so humbly, condescended
Merry Christmas to all mankind
The King is coming just in time
Into the dark, His light will shine so bright and beautiful
Merry Christmas to all
Can we hear the nations crying?
Or have we closed our ears? Somehow justifying
how we celebrate the humble birth of Jesus
Do we see the poor and hungry?
Will we meet their needs? Or close our eyes and spend our money
on things we know will never satisfy us
Did you catch that last bit? Does it ring a bell with what I’ve mentioned here before about the Advent Conspiracy and how we seek to celebrate Christmas differently? By spending less, giving more, worshiping fully, and loving all.
Yeah so it turns out Ross King is local…as in he leads worship in Bryan, TX and has been writing music and touring around for quite some time. Given the lyrics of this song I was somehow not shocked that he is an adoption and orphan care advocate, with three adopted kids of his own. Bonus, right? Color me sold on digging into his music more.
Oh yeah, and the hook to this song is super crazy contagious. That means sing it or hear it once or twice and you won’t be able to get it out of your head. So not kidding.
So here’s the story behind the song and a little acoustic version. I wanted to show you the full recorded song but I’m apparently a moron and cannot figure out a simple way to embed the song itself here. You can hear a bit of the recorded version at the beginning of that video, and on the Amazon widget below.
<A HREF=”http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=qf_sp_asin_w_mpw&ServiceVersion=20070822&MarketPlace=US&ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Fwaterwatereve-20%2F8014%2Fb5321051-47c8-46c9-a8e5-10c7f9104527&Operation=NoScript”>Amazon.com Widgets</A>
