On Sunday, we enter the final week of the Advent season. It is technically a short week, as Advent ends on Christmas Eve, which is Wednesday. So we have only a brief few days to consider the theme for the final week, which is LOVE.
Of course, the entire Bible is a love story, filled with much to say about the nature and reality of God’s love for us. If you can, try to move past your familiarity with the the story of Christ’s birth for a moment.
Think about what was really happening in that event. I can’t help but find the incarnation to be one of the most mind-blowing acts of love and sacrifice in all of space and time.
Jesus came to be one of us. Infinite God crossing into the realm and into the flesh of finite man. Unbelievable!
Literally thousands upon thousands of artists, writers, and Christian creatives have depicted the story surrounding Christ’s incarnation in various ways. One of them is the Victorian writer Christina Rosetti, who wrote a couple of poems concerning the birth of Christ that have now passed into the realm of classic Christmas hymns. Perhaps she is best known for her haunting In the Bleak Midwinter. But another poem, Love Came Down at Christmas, concerns the theme of this fourth week of Advent.
For years, I’ve enjoyed this poem set to music. Something about the lyrics of the first stanza captures the enormity, the simplicity, and the beauty all wrapped up in the incarnation story. When my boys were little we spent an entire Advent season one year memorizing and studying this poem.
Love Came Down at Christmas
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, love divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love incarnate, love divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and to all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
You might not know the word “wherewith” in stanza two, since it has fallen out of use since the 1880s when this poem was penned. But it is a crucial line for the message of the poem, so let me put on my English teacher hat... “Wherewith” basically means “by means of which.” So, one way to think about lines 7 and 8 in the poem is that it is asking, “But by what means do we worship Jesus?”
The answer of stanza three? LOVE. And how does stanza one define Love? JESUS.
It’s good stuff, this poem. Don’t let it’s simplicity fool you.
I invite you to meditate on it like my kids and I did as a homeschooling Christmas unit that one year. We talked about the lyrics, studied poetry structure, drew pictures, and listened to some of the many various arrangements of this poem set to music. We lingered over it slowly. They may not recall much ten years on, but I have since held great admiration for Ms. Rossetti’s insightful theology and exhortation.
Several years before the boys were old enough to study a poem, I fell in love with a version of this song by Jars of Clay (even though it skips over the second stanza). You can listen to it HEREas you prepare your heart for the Christmas celebration in just a few short days. If something less contemporary and more choral is more your style, HEREis another arrangement.
May you find More of His love this Christmas!