You Gotta Get Up

Rich Mullins wrote this one from a kid's-eye view of Christmas morning, all reindeer noises and red wagons, before letting a single couplet carry the actual weight of the day: "I hope there'll be peace on earth, I know there's good will toward men, on account of that Baby born in Bethlehem." The line lifts Luke 2:14 almost word for word — the angels' announcement over the shepherds' field, "glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men."

Naming Bethlehem specifically ties the song back to Micah 5:2's centuries-earlier prophecy that a ruler for Israel would come "out of you," from "little among the thousands of Judah." Mullins doesn't dwell on the theology — the song moves straight back to presents and sleigh bells after the couplet — but the couplet itself is doing real work, giving a children's Christmas song an actual reason for the excitement rather than treating the holiday as generic.