For this year’s Advent readings at The Austin Stone Community Church, we asked some of our Story Team artists to write poetic prayers that center around the birth of Jesus and the salvation that first came to us in a manger. We hope these prayers stir your heart to worship Jesus along with us.
ATONEMENT
Long ago laws were carved in stone,
Rules for flesh and rules for bone.
Kept inside a solid-gold ark,
Waiting in the dark,
Beneath the mercy seat.
On each end was a cherubim,
There were two of them,
Their wings spread wide,
Staring across that golden divide
That solid-gold mercy seat.
On Atonement Day, a beast was killed,
Warm, red blood was spilled.
Priestly fingers splashed drops like rain
Sins were covered in the warm red stain,
Red stains on the mercy seat.
For years and years that was the only way,
Until angels came one holy day.
Not frozen, golden cherubim,
They filled the skies with their holy hymn,
Time for a true mercy seat.
His crib was filled with solid-gold hay,
There the Savior of the world lay.
No longer carved in cold, hard stone,
The Law had flesh and He had bone.
A new kind of mercy seat.
One day, His life was willingly given,
Thorns pressed to scalp, nails were driven,
The curtain was torn at His last labored breath,
Paving the way to our Father through death,
Our Jesus, our mercy seat.
The stone rolled away, letting everyone in
Holy of holies, there for all men,
Cherubim freed from the ark of gold,
Two dazzling angels shared news so bold,
He was the last mercy seat.
There’s a solid-gold crown upon His head,
Bread of life, lifeblood shed,
He covered our sins, once and for all,
He loves mankind, the great and the small,
Ransomed by His mercy, complete.
