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Advent Day 2, Monday: I Wonder As I Wander

The Carols of Christmas are familiar to us. But they are sometimes too familiar. We sing them and we forget to see the meaning within them.

Today's Carol is "I Wonder as I Wander". It's a Folk tune that has made its way into our hymn books and Christmas concerts.  Here's a link to the tune:  Audrey Assad singing "I Wonder as I Wander"

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
For poor on’ry 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 shepherds and all. 
But high from God’s heaven a star’s light did fall,
And the promise of ages it then did 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 heav’n for to sing,
He surely could have it, ‘cause he was the King.


The story behind it is rather amazing. John Jacob Niles was a composer and singer. Nationally recognized, he performed regularly in New York City and was a recording artist for RCA. Yet he was drawn to Folk Music from the Appalachian mountains. He moved away from the glamour of New York to live in Kentucky and explore the towns and villages for Folk Music.

One cold December day he was in North Carolina. As he walked the street of the little village, he stumbled upon a girl who he heard singing a song Niles had never heard before.
He asked her about the song and all she knew was that her mother had taught it to her and her grandmother had taught it to her mother. Niles wrote down the lyrics and the melody and knew he had discovered a treasure.

He published the song as "unknown" and it immediately became a part of American Christmas music. Niles died in 1980 and he never was able to discover who the girl was. Still, the song embraces the simplicity and sacrifice of Christ's coming. It was the same thing the Apostle Paul grasp as he wrote the words:

Philippians 2:6-11
6  [Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7  rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9  Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10  that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11  and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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