It is then that we sing ...

Just in from our carol service in Holy Trinity Dunoon - our wee church, filled to the door with people from the town and beyond, including, this year, a former chorister here from the late 1970s, now far older than we were when we first had a choir here. It was joyous and people said we sang better than ever - our choir, 8+1, have provided the carols for many years now.

What I'm posting now are the words I wrote for a carol this year, words that express for me some of the darkness of our world and the hope that is all we can cling to this short day as Christmas approaches. We sang it today, to the lovely tune Logan Water, which you can find all over the internet but not in the lovely two-part arrangement with accompaniment that John McIntosh, aka Mr PB, provided for me. I heard the tune, thought I'd love to sing it, and the words came:

Advent Lullaby
When the world grows cold
and our souls are dark with yearning
when the days are short
and we long for hope to come
it is then that we wait for the child the angel promised
for the child that will be born is the Prince of Peace.

When the angel came 
and her life was changed for ever
when the journey came
that would take her far from home
then the star and the heavens told the world of Mary’s baby
for the child that she adored was the son of God.

When our world is dark
with the lies and fears and hunger
when we long for truth
and the love that shapes us all
it is then that we sing of the paradox that guides us
for the child that we await is the Lord of all.

C.M.M. 2019