“Welcome to Our World” by Chris RiceWorship & Song, 3067
For lyrics see https://genius.com/Chris-rice-welcome-to-our-world-lyrics.
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A more contemporary selection for the Advent and Christmas seasons, Chris Rice’s “Welcome to Our World” was first published in 1995. Though the musical style is contemporary, the form is that of a traditional five-stanza hymn. Rice (b. 1970) acknowledged the world’s inescapable violence and turmoil, the first stanza, beginning with “Tears are falling, hearts are breaking,” setting a tone for the themes of Advent—darkness, waiting, and anticipating the light of the Promised One.
Stanza 2, beginning “Hope that you don’t mind our manger,” further recognizes a world of discord, poverty, and violence. Rice harkens back to Luke 2:7-8, where there is no room at the inn, but only a stable filled with animals and straw, a messy scene just like our world today. Yet amid the problems we face in our world, the last lines of stanza 2 invite the infant Jesus to “make yourself at home, please make yourself at home,” just like the Holy Family made themselves at home in the stable.
Stanza 3 petitions Jesus to “bring your peace into our violence, / bid our hungry souls be filled,” pleading for an end to the violence, but also food and aid for the hungry among us, especially where poverty is prevalent. In a reference to John 1— “In the beginning was the Word”—the composer offers a metaphor of hope for the one long-awaited: “Word now breaking heaven’s silence.”
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Stanza 4 calls for healing, but also speaks to the paradox between Jesus’s birth and his eventual death, as it foreshadows why Jesus was sent to earth by God. The paradox is heightened in the powerful line that bridges the blood beating in the infant’s heart and the blood that would be shed for us: “Tiny heart whose blood will save us / Unto us is born.”
In stanza 5, the composer brings Jesus’ life full circle with a call to holiness and holy living. All that we do is given to God’s glory when we repent of our sin and follow Jesus. The theme “welcome to our world” has an ironic feel throughout. Yes, we do indeed welcome the infant Savior. However, we welcome Jesus to join us in our pain, hurt, and violence—welcome to the mess we have made of the world that God created.
While “Welcome to Our World” plays on the radio during Christmas time, Chris Rice did not have the Christmas story in mind, nor did he originally intend for the song to be a Christmas song when he composed it. In an interview with CCM Magazine, Rice shares some of the backstory:
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