O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

While the calendar says it's still a few more weeks, winter is essentially upon us. Decorations are up for Christmas, it's a season of shopping and preparing and enjoying the holidays.

For photography though it's kind of a quiet season for me. On the east coast, the mid-Atlantic area especially, there's just a lot of brown and rain for much of it, at least where I live. It takes a little effort to get motivated to branch out further for better photo opportunities.

Actually winter time can be a time of challenges to be motivated in a lot of ways. A lot of people suffer from seasonal depression. The cold can make it hard to get around. People get snowed and iced in, etc.

And some people just don't like winter.

But winter is a necessary part of nature. It's part of life. It certainly bids us to long for the warmth of Spring. But there are many joys to experience even in winter time, even if you're a bit of a Scrooge.

Recently, the hard rock (and Christian) band, Skillet, has been making some headlines for their recent cover of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel".

I won't spoil it if you haven't listened, but needless to say Skillet adds their personal touch to it.

Whether it's your cup of tea or not, it brings the old Christmas hymn back to the forefront of our minds in a fresh way. The video might be confusing to some, but if you pay attention to it and the lyrics, the meaning becomes clear.

The reality is, life is full of wintery seasons, and it's a shame that it can oftentimes be around the time we celebrate one of the most joyous occasions of all, the birth of Jesus Christ.

These times of life drive us to cry out "come quickly, Lord Jesus!"

The song is a cry for the advent, for the coming of Messiah, the Savior. We still yearn for His coming, but now it is His second coming. We want to see true justice, we want to be rid of sin, we want the devil to be defeated, we want death to be done away with, we want the King of Righteousness to finally rid the world of all that is evil.

I think this hymn touches on that idea. True, it is a bit of a somber tone, not exactly how we tend to want to start our Christmas season. But somberness is a reality in life. We don't just paint over it hoping it will go away, instead we recognize it, and long even more for Christ's return.

But let us not lose hope in doing good, for we have much to be about! Christ didn't come to save just a few, but many, and we should be about the business of the gospel. And this world we live in, while corrupted, there is much good to be about and enjoy. Jesus came to give us life and life abundantly (John 10:10). And so there is much to be joyful about.

Even so, we still sing:

"O come, O Bright and Morning Star, and bring us comfort from afar! Dispel the shadows of the night and turn our darkness into light.

O come, O King of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind. Bid all our sad divisions cease and be yourself our King of Peace."

Until that day, to quote Todd Friel: Go and serve your King!