It Came Upon a Midnight Clear Verse 3

O ye, beneath life's crushing load

Whose forms are bending low

Who toil along the climbing way

With painful steps and slow: 

 Look now for glad and golden hours

 Come swiftly on the wing.

O, rest beside the weary road 

And hear the angels sing. 

This might be the verse that sealed the deal in the whole Favorite Christmas Song contest.  Because I may have lost the Psycho Christmas Imp switch from my childhood -- a fact that I think my family is desperately glad of but I personally miss -- but Christmas music still has all the same power over me.  All that to say that the contest for my favorite carol is steep, but this verse seals the deal.

 Starting with the "ye" because that is the formal, respectful form of the pronoun we just use "you" in all its forms for now.  So all those sad, tired, and poor -- the people who have born the worst that this world has to offer and have walked on and on, climbing their way out of a desperate situation in weary, aching steps and dangers...those are the people who deserve our utmost respect.  Those are the people we talk UP to, not DOWN to, if we are like the angels.

I wish nothing more for the Syrian refugees than I wish that they can hear the angels singing to them, and that the window that helps them rest beside the weary road and hear it is human kindness spreading to the governments taking on open, generous policies.

This verse describes a lot of people in our world right now.  The homeless I saw huddled under the highway on my drive today, the innocents or innocent-until-their-loved-ones-were-attacked people caught in war torn worlds, child soldiers drafted into battles they never should have been near, and most clearly right now -- the Syrian refugees.  They are the ones the angels sing for.

The angels don't mind if we listen, but it's mostly in the hope that we are inspired to help the ones that the song is FOR.  The people who have the respect even of the angels, who address them formally.  To speak UP to them, while so many people and politicians are talking DOWN to them like dangerous scum.

The very song of the angels is for them.