A CHRISTMAS FOLK HYMN
Do you ever go out at night and gaze at the dark sky with all the twinkling stars? Or take a walk in the daytime and wonder at creation? A similar wonder is expressed in the Christmas carol “I Wonder as I Wander.”
The haunting folk melody of “I Wonder as I Wander” contrasts with the classic majesty of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing.” Yet, through the years, both songs have become favorites of the Christmas season.
The story behind the composing of “I Wonder as I Wander” began in July, 1933. American folklorist and singer John Jacob Niles attended an evangelistic service in Murphy, North Carolina. Like many families during the Great Depression, the Morgan family were desperately poor and tried to raise money through evangelistic services. A girl, Annie Morgan, appeared and sang one line of a song for a quarter each time she sang it. With Mr. Niles’s encouragement, she finally sang three lines, and from that he created the Appalachian folk hymn “I Wonder as I Wander,” which we sing at Christmastime. It’s a song of wonder and hope in reflecting on God’s wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ offered to everyone. (John 1:12)
1 I wonder as I wander, out under the sky,
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor ordinary [orn-‘ry] people like you and like I.
I wonder as I wander, out under the sky.
2 When Mary birthed Jesus, all in a cow’s stall,
Came wise men and farmers and shepherds and all,
And high from the heavens a star’s light did fall;
The promise of the ages it then did recall.
3 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 had it, ’cause he was the king. (public domain)
John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave HIs only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
I wish you a blessed Christmas and new year.
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