You think you’re just listening to another Christmas carol cover. Then you get to the 1:42 mark, and Chris Tomlin rocks your world with a new interpretation, inserting his own unforgettable words: Unspeakable joy. Tomlin found new life from an old carol. And in doing so, he seemed to stumble upon the real joy as if it appeared before his eyes. It’s a feeling I sense from the performer, and a feeling I experience as the listener.

“Joy, unspeakable joy. An overflowing well no tongue can tell. Joy, unspeakable joy. Rises in my soul, never lets me go.”