I'm part of a worship songwriting group, the Resound 12 Song Challenge, which encourages writers to create a worship song each month. This song came out of a challenge from June of 2023, whose theme was to write a song around the theme of "refugees". It starts as a kind of lament, acknowledging the terrible situation that many refugees and asylum seekers have come from and are going through, but progresses to fix our eyes on God as the one who protects, delivers and loves us.
Starting out from thinking about the fake halo angels and tea-towel clothed shepherds in school nativity plays, this song focuses on receiving in the true gift of God at Christmas - the child foretold by the prophets who grew to be our saviour.
A song coming out of the hero challenge on the 12 Song Challenge. Picking up on Matt Redman's Heart of Worship and asking the question of me as a worship leader, and us as worshippers - what is it all about, and have we made it all too complicated.