December 10, 2024 - Good Morning! It’s Tuesday, December 10.
This is Day Two of the series “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. On this holiday journey together we’ll look at Christmas through the lens of scripture, history, tradition, and culture. And a few times, like today, we’ll explore the story behind a favorite carol. This is the story behind my favorite Christmas song.
When you think of great hymn stories, maybe you think of John Newton standing on the deck of his slave ship, before he was amazingly saved, and wrote “Amazing Grace”. Or perhaps you imagine Horatio Spafford standing on the deck of an ocean liner, looking out at the place where his family’s ship went down, before he wrote “It is Well With My Soul”. The story behind this carol isn’t as dramatic as those, but it is memorable.
The year was 1818, and the little church - St. Nicholas Church! - was preparing for a Christmas Eve service, an event that most of the little town would attend. But there was a problem. The old church organ had broken down, and in those days, no organ meant no service. The young pastor, Joseph Mohr, sat in his study pondering this dilemma and, as often happens, from calamity came creativity.
The words to a new Christmas poem sprang quickly to his mind and were quickly written down. He hurried to the house of Franz Gruber, the town’s music teacher - and the church organist! - and, just as quickly as the words had come, there came a lovely, simple melody. That evening, in front of the whole town, the two young men sang the new Christmas song, to the accompaniment of a single guitar.
I hope you will have the opportunity this season to sing this carol with your church congregation. But why wait? It’s a simple song . . . and you know the tune.
Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright
‘Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace
Meet you back here tomorrow,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
