Christmas Carols

We sang all Christmas Carols this morning at Perimeter. They are such amazing songs; it is a shame we don't sing them all year long.

Hail the heav'n born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings, ris'n with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die;
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.
Hark! the herald angels sing, "Glory to the newborn King."

Goodness, can you hear them singing? Amazing. And that line, "Mild He lays His glory by"...so brief that I have sung it a million times without probably ever really feeling the weight of what it means.

And then I don't know that I have ever either sung all the verses to "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" or at least appreciated them as much as today:

Yet with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring;
O hush the noise, ye men of strife
And hear the angels sing.

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing:
O rest beside the weary road,
And hear the angels sing.

Oh for glad and golden hours!
"Peace on the earth, good will to men, from heav'n's all gracious King."