Worship Song Sunday --O Come O Come Emmanuel, by Aaron Shust

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound ~ Isaiah 61:1, AMP

Shade and Darkness, by William Turner

A hauntingly beautiful song of a captive people, crying out from the darkness, crying out in their pain and suffering, for Messiah's deliverance -- then and now. 

Emmanuel.  In Hebrew, it is Imanu'el, meaning 'God is with us.'  And for those of us who believe that this child - born to ordinary parents and into humble circumstances over two-thousand years ago - was and is God's very own Son, 'God is with us' should indeed be the summation of what Christmas is REALLY all about. 

The birth of hope.