Year after year it can feel harder and harder to connect at Christmastime with the deep mysteries of Christ’s birth, of God’s choice to come to earth, to take on human flesh, to come into our suffering, to meet with us, to bring healing to the nations… The reasons for our heart’s distraction from this beauty are many, but sometimes something as simple as a song written in holy surrender can float by our ears and draw us back to the wonder of Emmanuel - God with us.

This is precisely what I’ve experienced over the past 16 hours since I opened Sara Groves’ new Christmas album - an awakening from the distraction, an invitation into holy wonder.  Sara is an artist partner with us (and dedicates the fourth (and title) song on this album to our work).

Sara, thank you for the way you let God use you to draw us to truth, beauty and blazing hope, even in the darkness of injustice and oppression.