107 Awake! Awake, and Greet the New Morn
Awake! Awake, and greet the new morn, for angels herald its dawning.
Sing out your joy, for soon he is born, behold! the child of our longing.
Come as a baby weak and poor, to bring our hearts together,
He opens wide the heavenly door and lives now inside us forever.
To us, to all in sorrow and fear, Emmanuel comes a-singing;
His humble song is quiet and near, yet fills the earth with its ringing;
Music to heal the broken soul and hymns of loving-kindness.
The thunder of his anthem rolls to shatter all hatred and violence.
In darkest night his coming shall be, when all the world is despairing;
As morning light so quiet and free, so warm and gentle and caring.
Then shall the mute break forth in song, the lame shall leap in wonder,
The weak be raised above the strong, and weapons broken asunder.
Rejoice, rejoice, take heart in the night. Though dark the winter and cheerless,
The rising sun shall crown you with light; be strong and loving and fearless.
Love be our song and love our prayer and love our endless story;
May God fill every day we share and bring us at last into glory.
Devotion
Take a moment, take a breath, and pause. Look back over your last 24 or so hours, and settle into the memories. I want you to take a few minutes to think, intentionally, about a moment of tiny delight or gratitude that you experienced. Maybe your cup of coffee was the perfect temperature, maybe you spotted someone doing a silly dance in their car, maybe you got a call from an old friend, or maybe you noticed beautiful leaves dancing in the wind. Most likely, you’ve experienced tiny moments of gratitude and delight that many of us could never even imagine. What might yours be?
This hymn calls us to awake, awake and greet the new morn, to look up from the brokenness that threatens to hold us down and to listen carefully for the coming of God—Emmanuel, God with us—whose quiet song draws nearer and nearer. As we begin to listen closely to this song of God’s coming, consider this a time to focus on the tiny ways you notice joy, delight, gratitude, and the wonder of God around you. Though the savior still comes, and we still wait, we have each day as a new opportunity to awake, to greet the new morn, and to notice the ways that God continues to heal the broken soul.
This hymn calls us to awake, awake and greet the new morn, to look up from the brokenness that threatens to hold us down and to listen carefully for the coming of God—Emmanuel, God with us—whose quiet song draws nearer and nearer. As we begin to listen closely to this song of God’s coming, consider this a time to focus on the tiny ways you notice joy, delight, gratitude, and the wonder of God around you. Though the savior still comes, and we still wait, we have each day as a new opportunity to awake, to greet the new morn, and to notice the ways that God continues to heal the broken soul.