I was trying to articulate the particular heaviness, grief and loss of this year and came to the realization that Covid 19 is just a backdrop. The larger story of Advent for me this year is Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, Chantel Moore, and the end of four years of Trump autocracy. Spencer says Mothers and Shepherds is “The backdrop of the birth of Jesus was a great injustice and a nation of grieving mothers. The same prophecy that haunted the powerful, brought hope to the lowly, and caused an ordinary group of shepherds to search out the young king that Herod had tried to kill. This is a Christmas song that forces hope, disaster and pursuit to meet on a painful, yet dauntingly beautiful path that exposes how much we’ve always needed a savior.”
Come now and hear the sound
Of mothers gathered ‘round
Tears are streaming down in Bethlehem
Grieving life that didn’t have to end
Asking God to justify the pain
Never knowing he would feel the same
The powerful oppress the prophecy
But shepherds passing through have found a king…
December 18 marks the anniversary of the signing of the 13th Amendment to end slavery in the USA in 1865.