Winter

It is cold here,
This winter of heart and land.
Who will come to warm us?
Who will be the one to save us
From our killing
From our wars
From our fighting
From our drugs
Pain
Strife
Death
Confusion
Perversities
Anger
Pride
Abuse
Injustice
Depression
Hopelessness
Hatred?
All only symptoms
Of a much larger war.
SIN.
How can we fight?
How can we win?
Since birth, corrupted.
"Be the change you wish to see in the world."
I cannot change.
No one can change.
No small Indian man with a vision and a fight;
No sweet old nun, selfless in her heart;
No suit and tied man armed with legislation and war;
All of us broken and bruised.
Marred by SIN.
Separated from our only hope
Because He is too good,
and we are not.
Bleak.
Hopeless.

There is One,
Greater than all of this
Who was, is, and is to come.
He came through the line of a king
But exceeds all those before Him.
Born humbly, abjectly
Surrounded by the unclean,
Yet filled with glory.
He is our sole Hope, our Savior, the one to mend our hearts.
He has made it right.
We may now enter in,
Still broken and bruised,
But hopeful.
He can change that which cannot be changed.
Our hearts of stone,
Immovable,
He has melted
With one glimpse of His glorious grace.
Hope of the Jew and the Gentile,
He is righteous and good and perfect,
Everything we were not.
Our greatest joy is
Knowing Him.
He has come to warm us.
His all consuming fire,
To save us from our winter enslavement
And bring life once again.

Come, oh come, Emmanuel!