Advent is a special season. Through lighting candles, Advent calendars, Bible reading plans, nativity scenes and more, we celebrate Advent by reflecting on Christ’s birth and His second coming. Our savior came once, in the birth of Christ. And He will come again, in the second coming described in Revelation.
This year we have added a very special song to our worship setlist during Advent. Eric Wall, CRBC’s own Worship Minister, wrote & produced an original song titled Once and Again. This song is special not only because it uses musicians and vocalists from our church, but also because it is a reflection of all that we’ve been studying this year through the book of Revelation. We are going to use the next few blogs to help us all reflect on the meaning behind Eric’s beautiful lyrics.
I get the wonderful job of not only introducing you to the song, which I am honored to do, but also to break down the lyrics in the chorus. We hope you sing these lyrics as you decorate your home or wrap gifts, hum them as you prepare meals, and pray them in worship to our Savior as you reflect on Him during the Advent season.
CHORUS:
He came once and He will come again
Our Savior He descends
In power and in love
Behold our Emmanuel
Here with us to dwell
Hallelujah
Eric’s lyrics for Once and Again are rich with scriptural references. For the song as a whole, he was inspired to connect the first coming of Christ to His second coming. Eric explained, “the key point of connection between His comings for this song exists between Isaiah 7:14b ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel’ and Revelation 21:3 ‘And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’ In Jesus’ birth and His reign in the new creation, He is Emmanuel, God with us.”
As the chorus continues, it mentions power & love. Eric notes these characteristics of Jesus are specifically mentioned in both His first & second coming (Matthew 26:53; Revelation 5:12; Matthew 9:36; Revelation 21:4). He ends the chorus with a “Hallelujah” because in Revelation 19:1 we see the multitudes shout “Hallelujah!” What a glorious picture of Jesus’ reign then and in the future!
Being on staff with the arts team, I was lucky enough to watch this song go from lyrics written on a page, to just Eric and his piano, to hearing the choir added for the very first time, to the strings leading us into the song, to the brass instruments bursting forth in the “trumpet swell,” and then to the final version where I see and hear the heartbeat of our church through everyone’s incredible work on this song. We pray this song will continually remind you this Advent season that Jesus came Once and Again!
Meet the author!
Becca Walker is the co-founder of Metro Youth Theatre of Oklahoma. She also works part time at Council Road as the Women’s and Worship Coordinator. She and her husband, Brennan, love to serve in the church that they call home. Becca’s main loves are her family, her pups Wrigley and Rizzo, Old Navy, and of course, the incredible community at Council Road Baptist Church.