Advent Day 4: Promise

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“In the Incarnation, something new has happened: God has appeared and has revealed himself. He has emerged from the inaccessible light and has come into the world. He is no longer merely an idea, a hoped for promise, an article of faith; now he has appeared... But how has he appeared? In what form? In the Christ child, God is not a wrathful executioner of justice, nor is he an angry judge; rather, he is “kindness and love.”
—Bret Thoman






"A Baby Will Come" by songwriter Bill Wolf
When I wrote this song (below), I was captivated by Mary's magnificat (song) in Luke 1. As I was researching the social climate of that time and place, I realized just how dire the lives of the Israelites would've been. Between the brutal conquests of the Roman Empire under Caesar Augustus and the obscene taxation of Herod, King of Judea...they found themselves enslaved once again, but this time it was in their very own backyard.

The Promised Land no longer felt like the Promised Land.

And into that climate, a young adolescent Jewish girl was visited by an angel of God and told that she would give birth to a baby boy and His name would be "Salvation"; his very name would be "Liberation" for her and her people.

In a moment of joy and restraint, Mary sat down and wrote her Magnificat; a poem that is on one hand personal and introspective, but on the other hand, charged with social and political revolutionary language.

'A Baby Will Come' is more than anything my commentary on Mary's poem—which is her commentary on God’s long awaited promise. A promise that was soon to come true... for her and the world.


("A Baby Will Come" by Bill Wolf, sung by Emilee Cook)


  The kings of this world
Have torn it apart
But we can take heart
A baby will come

To the hungry and meek
To those who grieve
To the broken, in need
A baby will come

We have known pain
We’ve felt death’s sting
God, help us believe
This baby will come...



Tomorrow’s word: Anticipate/Await →

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