One of my favorite hobbies is listening to music. As I sit down to write this advent reflection, the first thing that goes through my mind is, what music am I going to listen to as I write? Most people would probably think about what they are going to write about prior to writing. I’m not one of those people. I need to get into “the writing mode.” Sufjan Stevens album, Seven Swans, is my choice of music for writing this reflection, and it occurred to me that I could reflect on the advent season through the words to one of the tracks.
“To Be Alone With You” is the fourth song on this album, and the lyrics are as follows:
I’d swim across Lake Michigan
I’d sell my shoes
I’d give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree
I’ve never known a man who loved me
The overall sense that I get from this song is the writer’s longing to be with an unnamed person. With the allusions to sacrifice and going “up on a tree,” I think it’s safe to assume the person the writer is referring to is Christ.
I love how the words change, “To be alone with you” switches to, “To be alone with me.” This reflects a mutuality in the longing for intimacy. Christ came to the world to be with us as a human being. We desire for relationship with Him, but God, the creator of the universe, also craves relationship with us.
To me, the advent season is a time of waiting, expecting, hoping, and excitement for the coming Savior. I love the yearning for intimacy that is expressed through the words of this song. Realizing the ultimate sacrifice that was made by Jesus, I think that this is the time of year that we long for Him to come, to be with us.