Come Sing the Songs

Come sing the songs of Christmas Time
This time of love and Joy
To celebrate with Mary
The birth of her first boy.
Let’s capture once again this year
The magic that we see
When we sing of her courage and her hope
Courage and hope
When we sing of her courage and her hope

Come sing of stars and animals
Of Shepherds, Kings and Straw
And hear the sound of crying
Behind the stable door.
Remind ourselves of all the things
That take us back in time
To the day when the child of hope was born
Hope was born
To the day when the child of hope was born

Come sing a song of loaves and fish.
And sermons on the plain
Of parables and healing
Of mustard seeds and grain
They tell us how this little boy
Became the man of faith
And gives us a season full of Joy
Full of joy
And gives us a season full of joy.

Come take this song of Christmas time
And bring its hopes to life
Give peace and love to everyone
To ease the dark of night
Be for the world the gift that keeps
on giving through the year
Oh star of the East lead us now
Lead us now
Oh star of the East lead us now

Christmas carols have always sat rather uncomfortably with me as they keep alive a fairy-tale view of Christmas that is more akin to Dickensian England than life in the 21st century. I wanted to write a hymn that connected Jesus’s ministry to his birth. So that, when we celebrate what has fast become a cultural rather than religious holiday, we can place this story back into the heart of the moment.