O Come, O Come Emmanuel

A little last minute Christmas music for your holiday season

There’s something about the holiday season that invokes a sense of sadness in many people. Long ago the church recognized this and incorporated it into the liturgy of Advent. Many carols and Christmas songs are expressly about longing for a time that has not yet come. For as long as I can remember I’ve been drawn to the songs that recognize the brokenness of this world and cling, sometimes desperately, to the hope found in that helpless baby in Bethlehem and His imminent return as king of kings.

O Come, O Come Emmanuel cries out for the restoration of all things. It almost languishes in our fallenness. It cut me deep this year and I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t weep on the first take. I think there are still a couple lines where you can hear that emotion trying to poke through.

But it refuses to stay there. It demands that we rejoice! Our hope is fixed on Emmanuel, God with us. And we know that He will come to receive his own.