Emmanuel
by Cheyenne Sensenig
O little town of Galilee,
A village trapped in darkest night,
A land beyond the distant sea,
We ache with you; we long for light.
Your world is wrapped in silent night;
Our darkness is a different kind.
Your people crushed by Roman might;
Ours free, but still enslaved in mind.
You wait in hope of prophecies,
Our world has long forgotten how.
You ache and pray upon your knees,
To doubt and to despair we bow.
Yet all creation longs and weeps,
We’re lonely even when we’re home,
We hide our pain in shadows deep,
In search of hope our hearts still roam;
Forgetting that one silent night,
The cosmos held its breath and strained,
As human flesh gave birth to light,
And angels burst into refrain.
So weary soul, lift up your head,
Your longing is not meaningless,
For God’s alive, he is not dead,
And Christmas proves His faithfulness.
The light has come—it breaks the dark,
And in our chaos and despair,
And in our longing, broken hearts,
Emmanuel—God meets us there.
Cheyenne is a TCK who is now living her dream of attending college in the USA. She plans to be a social worker, but loves creating with words on the rare occasions when she’s not doing homework.