The Christmas season is almost here! As a student of worship and music, I am inspired by the origin stories of the Carols and music of Christmas. For instance, the oldest Christmas (or Advent) Carol is O Come, O Come Emmanuel, probably written around the eighth century. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing was written by Charles Wesley but then edited by George Whitfield without Wesley’s permission nor approval. Silent Night was written by the German pastor, but the tune was written at the last minute by a church musician for the guitar because the church organ was broken. A depressed insurance broker in Scotland wrote a Christmas poem for his mother, a poem which later was put to the famous tune Greensleeves became the Christmas Carol What Child is This? However, one of my favorite origin stories concerns a relatively new Christmas song: I Wonder as I Wander.
John Jacob Niles was a musician and composer born in Kentucky in 1892. His career took him to Europe as a pilot World War I, further education at the Cincinnati Conservatory, the opera in Chicago, radio and opera in New York an even a signed artist with RCA records. However, with all his accomplishments in the finest music institutions in America, he longed for the simple music of the Appalachian region of his birth. So, he returned home and began to explore Appalachia to discover and record their unique music.
One day, during the Christmas season in a poor community in North Carolina, he observed the hustle and bustle of people of going about their daily lives. Suddenly, heard a small voice singing a hunting tune. He found a small girl sitting on a bench, just finishing the song. Taking out a note pad, he asked her to sing it again, and she obliged. He asked her where she learned it, and she replied, from her mom, who learned it from her mom, who learned it from her mom. Here are the words:
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die
for poor or’nary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.
When Mary birthed Jesus, ‘twas in a cow’s stall
with wise men and farmers and shepherd and all.
but high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,
and the promise of ages it did then recall.
If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing,
a star in the sky, or a bird on the wing,
or all of God’s angels in heaven for to sing,
he surely could have it, ‘cause he was the King
The words haunted him, as did the tune. As an accomplished musician and performer, he began to sing the song in venues across America, but he was never fully satisfied that he was communicating the simple beauty and mystery behind the song. After years of exhaustive research, Niles would never discover any more of the history behind the song.
On that cold winter’s night, a wandering stranger was captured by a child’s voice that sang a song about Jesus, born is the humblest of circumstances, yet with the greatest mission of all, to die “for ordinary people like you and like I,” and become King and Savior.
For the next four weeks leading up to Christmas, the sermons at Chapel by the Lake will explore how many of the Carols of Christmas tell the Good News of the whole Gospel story. This is a most joyous season, and I hope you will join us as we celebrate the Babe, the King, the Savior, Jesus.
The Rev. Dr. Tim Harrison is senior pastor at Chapel by the Lake. He and his wife Karen (also an ordained pastor) have been in ministry together for over 30 years. They served Presbyterian churches in Florida, Washington, New Jersey and Wisconsin.
“Living and Growing” is a weekly column written by different authors and submitted by local clergy and spiritual leaders.
