Welcome to our first hymn sing of the year!

Hebrews 13:5 – “God has said, ‘Never will I leave You; never will I forsake you.'”

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For “littles” and “young at heart”

Prayer of Thanks:

(Feel free to say each line and have your child repeat what you say or say it as you pray together.)

Dear God,
Thank you God for everyone in my family.
Thank you God for everyone in my school and home town.
Thank you for those who love and help others.
Thank you for everyone in the world who is working for
Peace, love and a better life for everybody.
Amen.

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Baby Jesus We Love You

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I Wonder as I Wander
1743

Hymn Background:

This less familiar Christmas hymn was written by folklorist John Jacob Niles (1892-1980). It was based on a song fragment he heard while traveling in the southern Appalachians.

Here are notes that Niles shared about the origin of this song:

“I heard three lines of music sung by Annie Morgan in Murphy, North Carolina in July 1933. The Morgan family, revivalists all, were ready to be ejected by the police from camping in the town square and cooking, washing and hanging their wash from the Confederate monument and they were considered a public nuisance. They plead poverty to the police and asked to hold one more meeting in order to collect enough gas money to leave town. Annie Morgan sang for Niles and was paid $.25.

Niles, born in Kentucky, had a musical family and began composing folk songs as an adolescent. Later he traveled in the Appalachian Mountains as a surveyor hearing folksingers and transcribing their songs. He later became famous for using song fragments from African American singers and from soldiers he’d met in World War 1. He sang in an eerily high-pitched, dramatic style and accompanied himself on dulcimer and lute, instruments he crafted himself.

LYRICS:

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
For poor ordinary 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.
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 heaven for to sing,
He surely could have it, ‘cause he was the King.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky,
how Jesus the Savior did come for to die.
For poor ordinary people like you and like I;
I wonder as I wander out under the sky.

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Brightest and Best