Month: December 2017

Lesson Learned From Children This Christmas

Jesus in Manger
My wife invited some children to our home to help decorate for Christmas. They set up the Christmas tree, displayed the wreath, and hung the stockings (with care). And finally, they started to set up the Nativity scene. My wife set out the stable and placed the figure of Jesus in the manger in the center. Before checking on her Christmas cookies, she asked the kids to place the figures of Mary and Joseph, the angel, shepherds and wise men, and all of the animals. When she returned, she realized that instead of the figures being set facing out, as is traditionally done, the children had set up the characters so that every eye was looking to Jesus, just as they should be.
This Christmas, through all of the shopping and parties and busyness, let’s all keep our eyes focused on Jesus, just as they should be.
Merry Christmas.
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The Trouble with “Joy to The World”

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Some of our most beloved Christmas songs, when you stop to consider the lyrics, are not really about Christmas. Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride, and Winter Wonderland are more about the winter season than they are about Christmas. My Favorite Things is from the musical The Sound of Music and takes place when children are frightened by a storm. Finally, Let It Snow and Baby It’s Cold Outside are about…well…not Christmas, that’s for sure.

And then, there’s the beloved Christmas carol Joy To The World, which as it turns out, is not really about Christmas at all.

Joy To The World, sung mostly at Christmastime, has more to do with the second coming of Jesus than the first. Isaac Watts, the English poet and originator of the lyrics, draws the song’s initial inspiration, not from the birth of Jesus narrative in Luke 2, but from Psalm 98. He paraphrased Psalm 98 in his collection titled The Psalms of David, Imitated in the Language of the New Testament. Joy to the World was taken from his portion titled The Messiah’s Coming and Kingdom based on the following from the King James Version:

Make a joy noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together. Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. Psalm 98:4-9

So, how did the song become a Christmas song? Possibly from the combination of the poem by Isaac Watts with the music of George Frederic Handel, composer of The Messiah orotorio. Even though Handel and Watts may have known each other, they did not work together to create the Joy To the World song we sing today. A third party combined the Watt’s words with musical portions from Handel’s Messiah to create the tune that is sung today in North America. Since Handel’s Messiah is associated with Christmas and contains a “Christmas” section, the breakaway song, Joy to the World, has always been associated with Christmas.

So there you have it, one of the most beloved Christmas carols of all time is not a Christmas song. Does it matter? Not really. Enjoy it and use it to worship the Lord, who was born in Bethlehem as a baby and will one day return to judge the world with righteousness.

Merry Christmas.

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New Verses to Away In A Manger

photo- courtesy of Unsplash - photo by Greg Rakozy

A few years ago, as Christmas approached, I was going through some personal struggles and even considered leaving the ministry. However, as I sat to review the worship music for the beginning of the Christmas season, I couldn’t stop singing the lyrics to Away In A Manger, one of my favorite Christmas carols. I love the simplicity of the song and am always impressed by the childlike faith it evokes.

Here are those first three stanzas:

Away in a Manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.          The Stars in the sky looked down where he lay, the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.

The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.                   I love thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, and stay by my cradle til morning is nigh.

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask thee to stay, close by me forever and love me I pray.            Bless all the dear children, in thy tender care, and fit us for heaven to live with thee there.

However, as I sang, I felt the song wasn’t complete, so on that day, I wrote two extra stanzas. Doing so help restore my faith and hope in the Lord. I pray they minister to you as you read them below.

No longer a baby, He grew to a man, sent to us from heaven to fulfill God’s plan.                 He died on a cross to atone for our sin, then rose from the dead to be alive again.

This precious Lord Jesus is all that we need, if we make him our Savior and our Lord indeed,                                                                                                                                                  Oh please, wondrous Jesus, be with us today. Fill us with your spirit, we now humbly pray.

Merry Christmas.

*photo courtesy of Unsplash

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