Because even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes, I realized I should be putting the title of the song in the title of the post… Oi to da Vey. We’ll fix that. Someday. Maybe. Sort of.

When doing my thing as the commander of the Overnight Army on 91.3 WCSG, I have two Christmas traditions as we turn the corner from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day. First, sometime shortly after midnight, we always play “Toy Packaging” by Sara Groves, as a tribute to any parents who are still up, assembling toys when they should be snug in their beds. Hee hee hee…

The second is, we read sections of the first chapter of the Gospel of John. By the time we arrive at Christmas day, we’ve celebrated the baby boy, contemplated what Mary knew, decided that the song is actually about the singer pondering the mystery and NOT about a literal asking her what she knew like some New Testament investigation squad, laughed at the memes, (“Mary, played Uno” being a personal favorite…) and are ready to settle down with the Word and the Light.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Light exploded into the darkness.

And there’s Advent in a nutshell. Word and Light, come to save us all.

You and me we use so very many clumsy words.
The noise of what we often say is not worth being heard.
When the Father’s wisdom wanted to communicate His love,
He spoke it in one final perfect Word.

He spoke the incarnation, and then so was born a Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born a baby who would die to make it mine.

And so the Father’s fondest thought became flesh and blood.
He spoke the living luminous word, at once His will was done.
And so the transformation that in man had been unheard,
Took place in God the Father as he spoke that final Word.

And so the Light became alive and manna became Man.
Eternity stepped into time so we could understand.

He spoke the incarnation, and then so was born a Son.
His final word was Jesus, He needed no other one.
Spoke flesh and blood so He could bleed and make a way Divine.
And so was born a baby who would die to make it mine.
– Michael Card