Easier (The Song Of The Wiseman)

Jason Gray writes from inside a wise man's hesitation rather than his arrival, naming the actual difficulty plainly: "it's easier to give a gift of gold than to give my heart for another to hold... do I hide behind my offerings while you're hoping for the heart of me?"

"The weary wisdom of broken men says it's only the fool who rushes in" names the reasoning behind holding back — caution dressed up as wisdom — before the song turns that reasoning on its head: "overcome by innocence, my wisdom becomes foolishness before the tiny babe, born to give himself away."

"So led by light of a star sweetly gleaming, with glowing hearts by his cradle we stand, fall on your knees" borrows a line straight from "O Holy Night," placing this wise man's internal struggle inside the more familiar carol's own posture of surrender. "Only a child could heal the wound of the fear that keeps me away from you" closes the song admitting that the gift finally given wasn't gold after all — it was the thing the whole song said was harder to give.