Adarayaka Mahime Lyrics by Bro. Charles Thomas

The glory of a love,
hidden from the world, in a cattle shed..
bringing joy along with you, you came,
and you wiped away our tears

This is a small, tender Christmas hymn, and in just four lines it holds the whole wonder of the Nativity. It begins by naming what the birth of Christ really is, “the glory of a love,” and then places that glory in the most unlikely spot imaginable, “hidden from the world, in a cattle shed.” The greatest event in history happened where no one was looking, in a stable, quietly, away from the eyes of the powerful and the busy.

That contrast is the heart of the song. Divine glory did not arrive in a palace with trumpets; it came concealed in poverty, “hidden from the world,” so that only those willing to look for it in humble places would find it. It is love that chose to be small and easily missed.

And yet what that hidden love brought was anything but small. “Bringing joy along with you, you came, and you wiped away our tears.” The child in the manger came carrying joy for the whole world, and comfort for every grief, drying the tears of all who would receive him. What the listener is left with, in these few short lines, is the essence of Christmas, that the glory of God’s love slipped quietly into a cattle shed, and from that lowly place brought joy to the world and wiped the tears from human eyes.