Seethala Sulanga

A cold wind is blowing,
a star shines in the sky,
love flows out in streams,
and the Lord is right beside me

On a day in the far distant past,
a baby’s cry in a cattle shed,
a star shone out, destroying the darkness,
the Prince of Peace had come
A cold wind is blowing

Bearing sorrow for the sake of this world,
blood flowing out from your body,
quenching our tears and freeing us from sin,
you are life, forever

Let us put a stop to the empty tales now,
and seek the true meaning in the Christmas season
going out to find the tears that fill people’s eyes,
let us wipe them away, as the Lord would
A cold wind is blowing

This is a Christmas hymn that begins in the cold, starlit wonder of the Nativity and ends by asking what that wonder should make of us. Its opening sets a hushed December scene, “a cold wind is blowing, a star shines in the sky,” and into that cold night pours warmth, “love flows out in streams, and the Lord is right beside me.” The nearness of God is felt as heat against the cold.

The middle verse remembers the first Christmas, “a day in the far distant past, a baby’s cry in a cattle shed,” when “a star shone out, destroying the darkness” and “the Prince of Peace had come.” And in a single sweep it carries the story all the way to the cross, “bearing sorrow for the sake of this world, blood flowing out from your body,” so that the baby in the manger is never separated from why he came, “quenching our tears and freeing us from sin,” and is named “life, forever.”

The final verse is where the song turns toward us, and it is quietly bracing. “Let us put a stop to the empty tales now, and seek the true meaning in the Christmas season.” Instead of letting Christmas dissolve into hollow celebration, the singer calls us to its real point, and defines that point as action: “going out to find the tears that fill people’s eyes, let us wipe them away, as the Lord would.” What the listener is left with is a Christmas that is more than a scene to admire, an invitation to meet the Prince of Peace by doing what he does, going out into the cold world to seek the weeping and wipe away their tears.