Dear Hill Country Families,

I love sacred music, and the best time of year for getting my fill of it is during the Christmas season. To be clear, my wife and children have not yet come to share my love of said sacred music. I think their term for whenever I turn it on is “caterwalling.” But I’ve gotten over the offense and crank it up anyway.

You’ve likely noticed that Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. In Texas, it’s certainly darker than summer. But in Washington, December was truly the darkest and gloomiest time of year. You just want out. Give me some sunshine!

Historically speaking, we don’t exactly know when Jesus was born (sorry if I just burst a Christmas bubble for some of you). But the early church was very intentional about placing Christmas where they did. They desired to place it on the Winter Solstice—the darkest day of the year.

Why? Quite simply, because a world without Christ is hopelessly lost and dark.

It’s interesting to me that in America, we’ve tried to get rid of the darkness of Christmas time by lighting everything up. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas lights—so long as I don’t have to put them up. And I think it is more than appropriate to celebrate the light of the world by lighting up the world.

But the intent of placing Christmas on (or near) the darkest day of the year was to place it during a time and season when everything on earth (humans, animals, even nature) longed for light and warmth. All of this in an effort to remind us year after year that our state without Christ is truly dark.

Back to sacred music—one of my all-time favorite sacred choral songs is entitled “O Radiant Dawn” by James MacMillan. I love it because it is hauntingly beautiful. I also love it because it catapults me out of the hustle and bustle of Christmas and reminds me of the dark, gloomy land in which I live apart from Christ. If I’m honest, I try to push away the thoughts of the darkness of this world. But if I open my eyes on my drive home, I see it. If I open my eyes to see colleagues suffering unimaginable hardships, I see it. If I open my eyes and face my own deep soul longing for wholeness and peace, I see it.

We live in a dark place.

Yes, the light has come.

But the dark place in which we dwell (both physically and internally) will not be fully restored until Christ returns and makes us whole again.

We are a desperate people: “Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

Enjoy this hauntingly beautiful version of O Radiant Dawn, with the lyrics below:

Light has come, we just can’t fully take hold of it until all is finished.

In Christ,

Eric DeVries, Head of School

O Radiant Dawn, Splendour of eternal Light, Sun of Justice:
Come, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.
Isaiah had prophesied,
The people who walked in darkness have seen the great light
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone.
Amen.