Tag Archives Christmas

What Child is This?

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what world is this
where beasts and evil roam
where moth corrupt
and we walk alone
through crowds gone mad
as vagrants scorned
where drought and dread and dust doth blow
and it just doesn’t feel… like home

we press on through the wretchedness
across the valley of the shadow of death and its
all we can manage
to slosh through the sickness
and crawl through calamity
we are all witness to the fall
what humanity is this
that the sky would forsake with such (fury in) hues of hot gold
these bodies baking and burning
shaking and swerving
as we make this journey in shoes with lost soles
behold

what oasis is this
where we can kneel and taste
of water so pure
and partake of bread
that we will never hunger
and find comfort in our salvation made sure

what truth is this
that would come forth to relieve us
amidst all that would deceive us
what warrior is this
that came through the gallows
victorious
against all that would defeat us

what light is this
so bright and glorious
what commandment is this?
love God and my neighbor
but also my enemies that curse me
what medicine is this
that purges me of my own pestilence
that nourishes me in my negligence
that encourages me in adversity
and emerges in emergency
and furnishes me with breath in my breathlessness
whose death is my deathlessness
and whose rise is my righteousness
what child, what child, what child is this

in a world whose heart would harden us
where we would become lost
in the middle and the margins of
what savior is this
so sweet and marvelous
who would believe from the start and
agree to embark for us
who would grieve at how hard it was
but still kneel and (soak) the scars for us
whose pleading would pardon us
whose bleeding in the garden would
be the healing of every broken part of us

hail, hail for the Word made flesh
whose sentence cemented us in the story
and whose paragraphs
would be the parallax that let heaven’s glory merge with our quest
for the verve in our chest
for eternity’s best
they impaled with nails
and pierced with spears
for the break in the veil
we cheer Him with tears
we’re certainly blessed
for no matter what the world thinks might be king
this, THIS is Christ the King
whom shepherds guard and angels sing
praise be to the babe
the son of Mary
the son of God
that sacred fateful morn
joy, joy for Christ was born
and we are saved

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2020 Christmas Video Poem – Coming Soon

I wasn’t planning on making a Christmas video this year but felt prompted over the past few weeks given how difficult this year has been. I’m working with friend and several-time collaborator Kimberly StarKey aka The Rogue Pianist (and others) on a new piece in the vein of our previous Christmas videos Little Drummer Boy and Mary Did You Know.

This year’s video will look a little different, but we’re hoping to capture the same spirit within the crazy constraints of 2020. Watch for the premiere December 20th.

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Mary, Did You Know?

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Mary, did you know
that your baby boy walked on water
he made quite a splash
Mary, did you know
that your baby boy saved our sons and daughters?
he laid down his very life
on their behalf

the child that you delivered
has delivered you

he gave sight to a blind man
matter of fact, he was so kind to man
that he gave light to all mankind
he not only calmed a storm with his hand
but he wrapped every drowning woman and man in life preservers
his life would serve as the only one that makes sense of ours
his resurrection would serve notice
to all principalities and powers
that they will never hold us down
the perfect brightness of our hope

Mary, did you know
that there were no depths he wouldn’t go
to show us
that we are loved more than the deepest
reaches of our weaknesses
to teach us
that we are more than wanderers
that we are more than conquerors
that we are more than we can even dream of
all these centuries of debate over humans and nature
to this day he’s the only one
that can change a human’s nature

remember that time he was gone for 40 days
and you were worried sick
the very incarnation of evil
was trying to convince him
to prove his divinity through sin
he instead proved it through sinlessness
the conviction
the fortitude
the integrity
the perfection
the willingness
is it any wonder
Mary, did you know
that he was the only one that
could be our savior

what am I saying?
you knew
with every awe-inspiring act
every time you saw the shadow of the cross fall into his path
you knew
it was all coming to pass
all the lashes he took
you would have taken every last one of them for him
I know how mothers love

you knew you were kissing the face of God
but it still couldn’t mitigate the pain
even the sovereign loftiness of mercy
couldn’t soften the burden
or calm the hurt
or counter the consummate cost of redemption
when he bled from every pore
there was nothing in your special mommy medicine drawer
that could soothe the wounds
you just had to endure in excruciating silence
as he turned the world’s greatest tragedy
into its greatest triumph

and now the blind have seen
the deaf have heard
we will all live again
the lame have leapt
the speechless have spoken
the praises of the Lamb
I pray you understand
that it was your sacrifice
that made the whole blessed intercession feasible
you found favor with God
and that favor was returned
with salvation and blessings and joy
unspeakable

Mary, it all came true
your baby boy, the miracle that was created within you
was the Lord of all creation

we’re all still trying to fathom
the magnitude of the magnificence
the volume of the volumes
still pondering and pontificating
still glowing in the glory
I’m so thankful, because you see
that blind man
was me

Mary, I know you know what I know
that your baby boy was heaven’s perfect Lamb
the precious sleeping child that you held
is the Great I Am

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Little Drummer Boy – Musical Poetry Version

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My favorite Christmas song has always been The Little Drummer Boy. But because I can’t play any instruments or sing, I never thought I’d be able to do a “cover” of it and was always a little jealous of those that could. Just like the boy in the song, I never felt that I had a gift that’s fit.

But also like the boy, I realized that I could just give what I had. It may not be a traditional gift or what the world deems acceptable or worthy, but it’s mine. It’s me. My way of honoring his birth and expressing gratitude for the atonement.

I love the line “then he smiled at me”. After everything our savior has done for us, all he really wants in return is our hearts. If we offer the gift of ourselves he will always smile at us. No matter how unworthy we feel, we will always be enough.

Pa-rum-pum-pum-pum. Merry Christmas!

Lyrics:
come they told me
there’s a new born king to behold
a new royalty
bring your finest gifts
to lay before the throne
to honor him

but I told them
I’m not a shepherd
or a wise man
I have no gift that’s fit
I can’t sing like Adele
or rap like Lupe
I have no treasures of gold
but I don’t suppose he has much use for those anyway
I’m just a poor boy too
I only have these words
shall I say them for you?

Mary nodded her head
Kimberly tickled the keys
my 3 cats kept time
and I said my piece
I said my best for him
tore my heart straight out of my chest for him

told him I knew how he felt
when they detested him
and falsely arrested him
I thanked him for the truth
that they scolded him for
told him what the atone-meant to me and the impor-
tance of scorching blood so hot
that he had to sweat me through his pores
for getting through gethsemane on all fours
for the scourging he absorbed
and the thorns
of that barbed-wire halo
for walking on water
when my feet were cemented to the shores
for not only showing me the way home
but getting me through the doors
for becoming like me for a moment
so that I could become like him forever

I told him how these wars and afflictions
were so much more than I envisioned
I mean, I knew about the battle
but not about the scars
I knew about the gamble
but not about the cards
this is hard
these burdens are burning, I’m laden with them
these aches and pains, I feel forsaken with them
then he opened his arms and I saw his palms
I was graven in them
he had scars too
and he saved me with them
changed me with them

my eyes were opened to the liberation in him
and I saw how all these lonely stars
could become constellations in him

true as the noon sky’s blue

I thanked him for the courage
the hope
the ways of wisdom
to navigate every sacred day that I’m given
the amazing grace within him
the favor of forgiveness
when I wavered in suspicion
while they scathed him in prison
and bathed him in crimson
for breaking the system
so that today I can say with conviction
that because my savior was risen
I can rise too

for that
 I gave him all that I could give him

and as these vowels glided across a life time I implored
you were my consonant constant
the figure of my speech
my life line through the storms

it was full of awkward pauses
mispronounced words
stuttered and forged through a discord
of a thousand failed metaphors
I know it’s not much
but every syllable of this discourse
was just me trying to make my life rhyme with yours

my vocal chords were hoarse
and broken
and I could speak no more
I looked up
and I saw my reflection bouncing back and forth
through tears that traversed time and eternity

he said
your words are enough
you are enough

then he smiled at me
me and my poetry

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