The Album:
The Lyrics:
Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting
Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child
Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home
Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence
Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world
Fragile finger sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born
So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world
You can click here for Michael W. Smith's rendition.
Click here to hear a version by Chris Rice (I think this is the version I've heard on the radio).
Andrea's Take:
This song was part of a Christmas cantata several years ago at the church we attended. I absolutely loved it, and have since purchased the soundtrack so I can sing it myself (I don't do near as well as either of those men).
Obviously, this is a song of welcome, and I love these welcoming words--the same ones I might say to an honored guest in my home:
Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home
I think he did make himself at home. I'm certain he was the best son any mother could want. The best big brother a girl could ask for. And I know he was the greatest teacher and leader who ever lived. Every role he filled in his life on earth, I think he filled it to overflowing and made it his own.
The song is also a prayer:
So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy
Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
"Injured flesh" speaks volumes to me. The healthy body of a perfect newborn--singing with life and potential as it does--is certainly, at its best, "injured" and imperfect compared with the body He gave up to come here. And I love the image of him "wrapping" himself in this earthly form, like wrapping a present. Only this gift would stay sealed until a Sunday morning many years later, when he "unwrapped" and revealed the greatest gift the world will ever know.
"Rob our sin," paints a vivid picture. "Rob" of course means to take something from someone else. This is one "robbery" I'll willingly submit to. Also Christ robs sin itself. He robs it of power over my life and over my death.
How about you? In this Christmas Season do you welcome Jesus to your world?
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