One of our favorite Christmas carols is "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." It tells the story, through a series of beautiful and poetic prayers, of what Christ does for us.
First we see the plea for Christ to come as Messiah:
O Come O Come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel.
This figuratively refers to all of us, who are all born captives to sin. Then we see the plea for Him to save us from sin and death:
O come, thou Rod of Jesse free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them vict’ry o’er the grave!
After our salvation, we see the prayer for Him to continue to be our joy and cheer:
O come, Thou Dayspring come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here
O drive away the shades of night and pierce the clouds and bring us light!
We see the yearning for His second coming:
O come, Thou Key of David come and open wide our heavenly home
Where all Thy saints with Thee shall dwell,
O Come, O come Emmanuel!
And at the end of each verse we are comforted by this beautiful promise:
Rejoice, rejoice! Emmanuel, shall come to thee O Israel!
