Truth For The Heart
There are some songs with words and music so personally significant, I still remember the first time I heard them. Mary, Did You Know? is one of those songs. I first heard it sung by a small vocal ensemble at the water’s edge of a town harbor during an outdoor Christmas celebration ten years ago. […]
Read MoreThe wonder and glory of the birth of Jesus resound in this chorus from Handel’s Messiah, and the passage from Isaiah spans time from His First Advent to His Second Coming. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name […]
Read More“Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 (KJV) The roots of the music of Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel! go back to the 15th century.1 The Messianic titles in the lyrics, called the O Antiphons, are […]
Read MoreIn The Bleak Midwinter is a lovely Christmas carol written by English poet Christina Rossetti. I wanted to share it with you on a December Sunday morning. “Our God, heaven cannot hold him, Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When he comes to reign; In the bleak midwinter A stable place sufficed […]
Read MoreJoy to the World with its exuberant music and words of celebration is one of my favorite carols of the Advent of Christ. The words are based on Psalm 98, and it is one of the more than 600 hymns written by Isaac Watts (1674-1748).1 He wrote the hymn, however, not of the First Advent […]
Read MoreI Wonder As I Wander is an American Christmas carol with words and melody by John Jacob Niles. He based it on a few snatches of song he heard on July 16, 1933, in the small Appalachian town of Murphy, North Carolina: “A girl had stepped out to the edge of the little platform attached […]
Read MoreMusic is one of the most wonderful aspects of the Christmas season. The songs of hope, joy and love span centuries and countries, and when we sing these words or listen to these carols, we join with other believers who in other times and in other places worshiped God with the same music. This is […]
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Kindling for Candles 