My goodness, Christmas carols are loaded with contrasts and paradoxes. And so am I. Good and bad. Deserved and undeserved. Earned and unearned. Beautiful and ugly.
“Fall on your knees…
O night when Christ was born.”
Fall on your knees, as you would to revere a king? Or in exhaustion, like a “weary world rejoicing”? As “the world in sin and error pining”? The same Carol continues:
“The King of Kings lay thus in lowly manger,…”
The King? Rich, powerful, feared? Or lowly? Both? Lowliness is royal? Powerful?
“In all our trials born to be our friend;
He knows our need, To our weakness no stranger!
Behold your King! Before Him lowly bend!”
Our friend? No stranger to weakness? Seems unlikely for a god-man…
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Share your favorite carol lyrics and the paradoxical mysteries they raise inside you, below, please!
Feel with Neil 