Welcome.

A few months back, I told you I was really excited for the debut CD by a little ensemble known as The Welcome Wagon.

A married couple, church planting pastor and wife, affiliated with Redeemer Pres, singing hymns, recorded in livingrooms, with Mr. Sufjan guiding the entire project. What more could a guy like me ask for?

I got the album for Christmas (Thank you, Andy and Jodi), which was really the only thing I wanted this year. While it wasn't exactly all that I hoped for (a recurring theme in music and movies after getting my hopes up so unrealistically high in anticipation), purchasing the CD is worth it for a) the artwork and packaging and b) this track. (Follow that link for a rambling essay, but more importantly, a streamable mp3.)

Up on a Mountain is the opener that simply melts my heart and makes my eyes get all watery. Something about her voice that's so simple, innocent, honest, and humble, similar to--as Sufjan alludes to in the linked essay--a sincere Sunday school teacher urging her students to appreciate the glorious truths under the surface of the morning's flannelgraphs. The traditional 3/4 time sets things in the motion of a heavenly waltz: father,son,spirit,father,son,spirit. The smooth trombone bears witness to the truth like the wise-from-age patriarchs sitting in the Amen Corner. The high electric guitar noodlings sound like the lips of children from which praise has been ordained.

(Yes!...the more I listen, the more I hear a whole congregation at work, young and old, united as one body, motivated by true belief in what's being preached. It takes some good Presbyterians to communicate that ecclesiology in music.)

And by the last verse, how could you resist? How could you resist The Welcome Wagon, sure, but really, how could you resist the truth?

"Up in the heavens our Lord prays for you. He sent his Spirit to carry us through. So it's true, that you're not alone. Do you know? He came all the way down."

Yes.