This Christmas Joy

In swaddling clothes to us arrive,
This Jesus Christ, our hopes revive!
In Mary’s arms, her little boy:
This tiny babe, death to destroy.

Was not in clouds, come down to reign
But from a girl in labor pain;
Not in a throne was he to lay
But in a manger full of hay.

Welcome to Him from us today,
This Christmas joy, in us to stay.

From foreign lands their homage paid:
“To Bethlehem”, the star did say.
Fall prostrate where did shepherds come;
Laid out their gifts a costly sum.

Then in a dream: from Herod’s gaze,
Another path to home was made.
A furious king proclaimed forthright
That innocents shall loose their life.

Though in a world with evil known,
This Christmas joy, Love has outshone.

Give glory to the Father’s Son:
Begotten of the Holy One.
Though ev’ry part is from the same,
The Word to us in flesh he came.

A preview of the coming years,
A final act to wipe all tears:
From nursling small to mature man,
Fulfillment of the Godhead’s plan.

All praise and laud and glorious pow’r,
This Christmas joy, ‘tis Jesse’s flow’r.

Gerald McClain
© 2005 Musique de McClain
8-19-05