So bitter yet so sweet

I find it fascinating how the world around us loves Christmas and can enjoy Christmas carols about a baby in a manger. It is all so very safe, but as Mr Beaver says in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe "who said anything about safe of course he isn't safe but he's good." At the incarnation God comes in the flesh as a baby, yet he is still God and the purposes of God are fulfilled in the baby who came to redeem us. Graham Kendrick wrote a song that sums up the true significance of Christmas:

Since the day the angel came It seemed that everything had changed

The only certain thing Was the child that moved within

On the road that would not end Winding down to Bethlehem So far away from home

Just a blanket on the floor Of a vacant cattle-stall

But there the child was born She held him in her arms

And as she laid him down to sleep She wondered - will it always be So bitter and so sweet

And did she see there In the straw by his head a thorn

And did she smell myrrh

In the air on that starry night

And did she hear angels sing Not so far away

Till at last the sun rose blood-red In the morning sky T

hen the words of ancient seers Tumbled down the centuries ... A virgin shall conceive... God with us... Prince of Peace Man of Sorrows - strangest name

Oh Joseph there it comes again

So bitter yet so sweet

And as she watched him through the years

Her joy was mingled with her tears

And she'd feel it all again The glory, and the shame

And when the miracles began She wondered, who is this man

And where will this all end

'Til against a darkening sky

The son she loved was lifted high And with his dying breath She heard him say 'Father forgive'

And to the criminal beside "Today-with me in Paradise" So bitter yet so sweet

Graham Kendrick Copyright © 1994 Make Way Music, http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/