Our online Christmas card this year features a new Christmas carol that Deb and I have written, arranged, and finally committed to our own best effort at a Garage Band recording. Some of you have probably read these lyrics and seen Craig’s painting before. Both were originally made for Christmas 2018. And we have used them in different ways since. So, before we say anything more about the carol and its meaning, we want to let you hear it. You can also follow along with the lyrics, printed just below. The final title is, Father Abraham. Here is the musical link:

Father Abraham, he heard God speak:

“I’ll bless the whole world through your seed.”

And he believed, but he could not see

How all of this would come to be.

How could all of this come to be?

Yet, in a stable in the night,

A King was born to give his life;

And then to rise and set aright

What Eden lost, our common plight.

What Eden lost, he set aright.

So now, with justice, beauty, love,

We lean into the Kingdom he won,

Old Abraham’s many-great grandson.

The long foretold, the promised One.

“Arise, shine, your light has come!”

And we learn to die before we die,

Because we live in Him as one.

He is the New Creation’s dawn,

The First Born of the world to come!  

The New Creation, it has begun.

The first two verses tell the biblical story from Abraham (Gen.12) to Jesus (the Gospels) looking back also to the fall of man in Gen. 1-3 and 4-11. God promised Abraham that He would restore the world from its great fall, and that Abraham’s descendants would play a key role in this renewal. Think about it, Abraham lived about 1,800 years before Christ.  

The third and fourth verses pick up the story at the time of Jesus (Abraham’s many-great grandson) with what the Apostle Paul says about the calling of the church in Christ to become the renewed people of God (that’s us too) and to follow the Spirit toward the goal of history, the still unfolding journey toward the Day of Judgement, the renewal of the world, and our own physical resurrection. We live now about 2,000 years after Christ. 

So, the song is a sweeping reminder of how full of meaning (forwards and backwards) the birth of the baby Jesus at Bethlehem really was and is. Deb and I would like to thank Prof. N.T. Wright for his years of careful scholarship, which have enabled him to bring so much clarity to these centuries of the biblical story and their relevance for us today. We’ll hope to say more about some of this in the future. For now, we hope you will enjoy this new Christmas carol, and even add it to the ones that you sing with friends and family. May you have so much more than a “Merry Christmas.” 

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Musical note: The tune for Father Abraham is developed from the refrain of a traditional 17th century Swedish tune, Hoken, which Deb and I first heard on Barry Phillips & Friends 2008 CD, Colonial Christmas. Our lyrics, tune, and arrangement are copyright 2018 by Gallaway Art.