Easter Carol
(Eric Himes)

The idea for a Holy Week album came shortly after releasing our Christmas Musical EP in 2006. A friend simply said, “Hey, why don’t you record an Easter album? No one records albums about Easter, they’re always about Christmas.” That idea stayed with us and many of the songs on The Mercy Seat Sessions sprung from that initial exchange (specifically “Save Now” and “Behold The Lamb”). In one sense, I had moved on from the idea of writing songs for an Easter album at that point.

One evening in 2008 I read John’s account of the resurrection (John 20) and for the first time I witnessed this narrative from a purely human perspective. I immediately closed myself off in my bedroom and started writing what would eventually become “Easter Carol.” It all began with a simple melody and the lyric, “They’ve taken Him once, I can’t lose Him again.” I was floored by the devotion and strength of Mary Magdalene, who was first at the tomb, who is not at all concerned with the two angels (John 20:13) and who was so focused on getting her Lord back that she doesn’t even see Him talking to her (John 20:15). Her relationship with Jesus had transformed her from a scared victim into a woman who was not going to leave the tomb without her Lord.

I spent hours in my bedroom reading Scripture, writing lyrics and weeping over the beautiful way Jesus revealed Himself to His friends after the resurrection and to me that night.

The Singing Company tried to practice and arrange “Easter Carol” shortly after it was written but it was a difficult song to figure out. It was simple, repetitive and eight verses long, not typical for most of our songs. We dreaded working on it, tried battling through it and eventually abandoned it. Though it didn’t do much for The Singing Company, I played “Easter Carol” one night for Justin Rose (from Families) before he moved to Kenya to spend a year in ministry. Justin was very supportive and we talked about eventually having The Singing Company and Families partner on an album of Bible songs. He left for Kenya a few days later.

When Justin returned we picked up where we left off and both bands started working on Holy Week. “Easter Carol” remained a struggle right up until we began recording studio demos for the album. We would have given up if not for the work of Kirsten Gorton (who had the brilliant suggestion of playing it in 4/4 time), Drew Creal (who stayed up all night and figured out an arrangement of the song) and producer Jon Alvin (who fearlessly predicted that “Easter Carol” would become our favorite song on the album).

I share this back story and come to this conclusion: this is what the Lord does. He inspires through random conversation, delights in private revelation, defends throughout frustration, uses friends for confirmation and is ultimately praised with our adoration. These are steps of faith and they lead us to glorify our Lord.