Yea Lord We Greet Thee
Let's listen to verse 3 of O Come All Ye Faithful:
Yea, Lord we greet Thee, born this happy morning
Jesus to Thee be glory divine
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing
This is a beautiful verse! First, I love the greeting of Jesus here. I have a friend who, if you ask him to open a meeting in prayer, will always say "good morning Lord Jesus" or "good evening Lord", and I have always found that very meaningful. Maybe we too quickly rush into our prayer without a respectful greeting to the King of kings!
Showing God Appropriate Respect
In some cultures, greeting people in the correct way is a very important thing. It shows the appropriate respect for somebody who has come into your presence. I remember how at school, if a teacher walked into our class, we had to stand and greet them. Why? It was the respectful thing to do. In fact when I spent a few short months at a private school in Johannesburg, I remember that it was drilled into us that if an adult walks past you here at the school, you stand and greet them. And it was quite a thing for parents to have an entire grandstand of kids stand and greet them "good morning sir" or "good morning mam" as they walked around school. It showed respect.
Do we show God appropriate respect in our prayers? Perhaps we should greet Him more often, so that we can give Him "glory divine", as the song says - we can acknowledge that there is none like Him and that He is the only one who is worthy of glory and honour.
The Word Made Flesh
The songwriter then says something profound: "Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing". This comes from John 1, where Jesus is referred to as "the Word" which was with God in the beginning, but which "became flesh and made His dwelling among us" (John 1:14). And I like what John then says in the rest of that verse: "We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." Those who were lucky enough to see Jesus in the flesh saw one who had been with God from the beginning, before time, become human and display the glory of God in a real way. At Christmas time, we sing of this wonderful truth, and perhaps we wish we were there to have seen what those first disciples saw!
So when you greet Jesus in your prayers, it's not just a religious figure from centuries past that you're greeting - it's the very Word of God who took on flesh and dwelt here among us so He could live, die, and be raised again.
Yes, indeed, we sing with the writer of this song, Jesus to Thee be glory divine!
The Christmas story doesn't end on 25 December - it continues every day as we live with Jesus at the centre. Commit today to keeping Christmas alive in your heart throughout the entire year.