Christmas Hymn: The Morning After Jesus' Birth

Here is a hymn for this Christmas season. If you download the graphic, it should be large enough to reproduce well.

 

The morning after Jesus’ birth

no angels hovered near the earth;

the shepherds left to tend their sheep

and Bethlehem awoke from sleep.

The world was changed when Jesus came,

and yet, too much remains the same

as evil seems to keep its hold,

despite what prophet songs foretold.

We sing the angels’ song of peace

and wait for rage and war to cease.

And wait, with faith the world finds odd,

to greet the promised reign of God.

That reign is here, but upside-down,

for Jesus claimed no earthly crown

and shunned the use of hate and might

to turn the world from wrong to right.

At times that reign is hard to see,

and not where we would have it be.

It grows among the poor and weak

in places most refuse to seek.

As seeds take root in barren ground

so can the reign of God be found,

for Love has come and blossoms still

when we have faith and do God’s will.

LMD; suggested tune: YE BANKS AND BRAES

Adam M. L. Tice, December 7, 2016; ©GIA Publications, Inc.