Jesus Shall Reign

I love this hymn.  Love it.  Love it. 

So I thought I'd share it with you. :)  Happy Monday.

"Jesus Shall Reign" 


Original hymn lyrics by Isaac Watts


Jesus shall reign wherever the sun
Does his successive journeys run;
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
Till moons shall wax and wane no more.


He shall reign in glory 
Crowned with grace and might
Bless His name and praise the sovereign King
He shall reign in glory 
With his chosen bride
And all the earth shall sing that Jesus is the King.


People and realms of every tongue
Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
And infant voices shall proclaim
Their early blessings on His Name.

He shall reign in glory 

Crowned with grace and might

Bless His name and praise the sovereign King

He shall reign in glory 

With his chosen bride

And all the earth shall sing that Jesus is the King.

Blessings abound wherever He reigns;
The prisoner leaps to lose his chains;
The weary find eternal rest,
And all the sons of want are blessed.

He shall reign in glory 

Crowned with grace and might

Bless His name and praise the sovereign King

He shall reign in glory 

With his chosen bride

And all the earth shall sing that Jesus is the King.

Let every creature rise and bring
His grateful honors to our King;
Angels descend with songs again,
And earth repeat the loud amen!

He shall reign in glory 

Crowned with grace and might

Bless His name and praise the sovereign King

He shall reign in glory 

With his chosen bride

And all the earth shall sing that Jesus is the King.

This Is Not My Idea . . .

This morning when I woke up, I needed a little throwback to being a kid again.  These two clips are some of my favorite memories. :)


For some reason, I really loved obscure musical animated films when I was little.  I watched Happily Ever After:  The Snow White Story Continues as well as many others that I bet you've never heard of. :)  As long as they sang and danced, I was happy.  


One of my favorites was Thumbelina.  I think I secretly wanted to be the fairy princess when I grew up too.  I remember my mom taking me to this special theater in Raleigh where you sat at tables and ordered dinner to eat while you watched your movie.  And we saw Thumbelina there for the first time.  This has always been my favorite number from the movie, and I could still sing it even when I hadn't seen the movie for years! :)

In actuality, I don't remember watching The Swan Princess as a little kid.  I do however remember watching it when I was 15 years old and home from school with the worst (and only) case of the flu I've ever had.  Toon Disney was running a marathon of all three Swan Princess movies on repeat all day.  I think somehow in my feverish haze, between sleeping off and on all day I managed to cobble together all the pieces and see all three of the movies. This was absolutely my favorite number from the first movie, and sometimes when I don't like whatever I have to do that day, I sing to myself, "This is not my idea . . . of fun!" :)

Of course, I was a HUGE lover of all things Disney (and still am!).  Every summer when we would visit my dad's family in Wisconsin, we would go to the theater to see the new Disney movie that was out.  My first memories of going to see a movie in a theater are of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin.  The Little Mermaid was my very favorite movie growing up--I watched it so many times the VHS doesn't work any more!  Now Beauty and the Beast takes the cake for me in terms of my favorite movie.  I think it's because the music and scenes make it so much like a musical rather than a children's film.  Plus, it doesn't hurt that it's about a brown-haired, brown-eyed girl who loves to read and receives the BEST library ever! :)

So how about you?  What were your favorite movies as a kid?

Welcome to Our World

"Welcome to Our World" by Chris Rice

Tears are falling, hearts are breaking
How we need to hear from God
You've been promised, we've been waiting

Welcome Holy Child
Welcome Holy Child

Hope that you don't mind our manger
How I wish we would have known
But long-awaited Holy Stranger
Make Yourself at home
Please make Yourself at home

Bring Your peace into our violence
Bid our hungry souls be filled
Word now breaking Heaven's silence

Welcome to our world
Welcome to our world

Fragile fingers sent to heal us
Tender brow prepared for thorn
Tiny heart whose blood will save us
Unto us is born
Unto us is born

So wrap our injured flesh around You
Breathe our air and walk our sod
Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect Son of God
Perfect Son of God
Welcome to our world


Every time I hear this song I get a little choked up.  I think it says so much about Christmas.  


At Christmas, I think about how people just didn't get it when Jesus came to earth.  The Savior of the world was expected to be a mighty king--someone strong who would overthrow the Romans and establish a new rule.  Everything was in turmoil, and the Jewish people had been waiting for years.  There had been years and years of silence--no revelation from God.  A period of anticipation.  It made sense to expect a King--someone who could turn the tide for an oppressed and hurting people.  People were hungry for that Savior.  There was a longing in their souls for more.  They thought they knew what He would look like and what He would do.


But the "Word now breaking heaven's silence" was a baby.  A tiny baby who didn't even have a home, but had to be laid in a manger, a feeding trough for dirty animals.  He was visited by shepherds--the lowest of the low--and a few years later by Magi from the East.  Even the heavens couldn't help but cry out his birth with a magnificent star that led the Magi to Him.  


But He didn't come the way he was expected to at all.  He came as a tiny baby with "fragile fingers sent to heal us."  The fullness of God wrapped in "our injured flesh." Those itty bitty hands that Mary kissed countless times would grow to become a carpenter's hands.  And that carpenter would then touch lepers and cleanse them.  He would place his hands on the dead and raise them to life.  And He would stretch out those hands and allow them to be nailed to a cross.   


I think the line that probably most gets me is "Tiny heart whose blood will save us."  I'm sure that Jesus got bumps and bruises growing up.  I know the body produces different red and white blood cells over the course of a lifetime.  But that tiny heart that was born pumping the blood of a Savior.  And that blood would atone for sins once for all.  That blood that would mean His death would provide our relationship with Him.  Because that baby would grow up to be a man.  And that man would give His life in a sacrificial death to save us from our sin and bring us to God. 

And that, Charlie Brown, is what Christmas is all about.  :)