God With Us
An Advent song.
Hello friends! Happy Advent! What do I love more than Advent? Few things.
Here is a song I recorded last year for the Jesse Tree set I created: Emmanuel: God with Us! It’s a meditative refrain that can be sung again and again, like a mantra, while lighting the Advent candles, hanging Jesse Tree ornaments, or for centering prayer.
Star of Bethlehem by Allison Beyer. Watercolor and colored pencil.
This song was recorded on a wintery 2024 November evening in Indiana (winter comes early here and lasts…forever), in the home studio of a friend with tea and honey and scarves.
This song, and all of us gathered, were received with THE utmost hospitality and thoughtfulness. You should’ve seen the mug selection on the tea tray. The fine whiskey and honey to ease the scratchy throat. The cookies to nibble. The kindness with which J. adjusted the microphone for each one of us. The encouragement. The encouragement! The pure JOY of making something together. Of making something— anything—beautiful in a time fraught with peril and fear. (More on that in another post. Stay tuned!) But especially and all the more so because of the message carried in and by this song, for times just like that— like this, for Advent time, for all times.
I love this recording because I can savor this memory every time I hear it. I love it because I love my friends. I love it because I love that my friends are game for adding their voices and instruments and essentially putting flesh onto my simple songs. They make the song swell with feeling and substance! It makes God with Us feel that much closer to me. I hope you like it, too. xoxo
LYRICS
Emmanuel, God with Us!
Always, in all times,
Here with us!