Rejoice! Rejoice!

How wonderful to have a task centred around carols when that's all I've thought about this week!
We each have our favourite- by husband loves Silent Night, My daughter Ring Christmas Bells and my son We Three Kings. Each have some great words and bits of theology in them. My favourite part of those three is from We Three Kings:
"Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and sacrifice"
Although from Silent Night:
"With the dawn of redeeming grace" 
is pretty good.
My favourites are Angels From The Realms of Glory and O Come O Come Emmanuel.
I love the joyfulness of Angels but there's good stuff in the words too:
"Ye who sang creations story now proclaim Messiah's birth" reminds me of Jesus' presence at the beginning of creation and
"Watching long in hope and fear" links rather nicely with O Come O Come Emmanuel, which reflects the longing of a people to be restored and redeemed.
Carols are so evocative and we don't always pay attention to the words as they are so familiar, we sometimes sing them without thinking what we're singing. I can't help but be rankled by Once in Royal David's City's:
"Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as he."
What a horrible bit of propaganda!
It's good to re familiarise ourselves with the words, and think "is this what I believe?" If the answer is yes then we can sing up even louder, with confidence and joy.

"Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee o Israel."