I Wonder As I Wander

In all the Christmas rush, have you ever wished for a moment to stop and ponder the true meaning and mystery of Christmas? I’m reminded of an old Appalachian folk carol, “I Wonder as I Wander.” With its beautiful melody and quaint text, it creates a somewhat haunting setting for this song about our own condition and our Savior who came to redeem us.

When it comes to thinking about our condition as people, it is counter to the cultural norm of “Holly, Jolly Christmas,” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” or “Season’s Greetings” that we hear at “the holidays.” The song causes us to pause our harried minds and in quiet reverence and mystery have a grateful attitude for the grace that has been extended to us.

I wonder as I wander out under the sky, how Jesus the Savior did come for to die….

It’s Christmastime – stop amidst everything –give your mind to wonder. Look up at the vast sky above and realize how small each of us is, contrasted with the greatness of God’s love for each of us.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Next in the song we have this peculiar line making a statement about us, reflecting on our human condition.

For poor orn’ry people like you and like I; I wonder as I wander, out under the sky….

“Orn’ry” – what a fitting statement of what we become when we live out our sinfulness. Yet we can celebrate this Christmas the redemption that is ours in Christ and how He changes us.

When Mary birthed Jesus, was in a cow’s stall, with wise men and farmers and shepherds and all….

From the wise to the lowly shepherd, no one is denied the opportunity to know and worship the Savior, to be in His presence. Let us wonder in the earthly humility of being birthed in a cow stall. Our lyrics couple this position of humility with the truth that the promise God made to send a Redeemer was marked with a star.

But high from God’s heaven, a star’s light did fall, the promise of ages, it then did recall….

The Christ of Christmas is God’s promise to us and the star is a reminder that creation was even guided to celebrate this wonder…of God becoming man, to dwell among us.

Galatians 4:4

under the law,

God in His time had determined that he would enter humanity so that he might bring us the gift of redemption from sin, the curse of our being under the law, which we cannot keep.

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing, a star in the sky or a bird on the wing….

Here is a quaint celebration of the Creator, who in humility has stepped into his own creation and can have anything he wants of it. He is the one whom all creation and heavenly hosts worship. I invite you to look up one of the greatest “Christmas” passages in scripture:

Philippians 2:6-11 ⁶Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; ⁷rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Coming back to our lyrics, we continue with the dramatic irony of the One who could have had the star or the bird,

Or all of God’s angels in heav’n for to sing, He surely could have it, ‘cause He was the King.

The joy of Christmas is to know this Savior who humbly came (that baby in the manger, in a cow’s stall) and yet will be worshipped by all in heaven and on earth.

In the final verse of the song, we come back to our wandering , to the initial idea…take the time to pause, even step out under the night sky. Quiet yourself and worship the One who in His love for us, gave up everything, yet could have anything, because ”He was the King.”

Let the melody and text envelop you in your own time of wonder as you celebrate your redemption found only in the Savior.

Have a Blessed Christmas!

The "Word" on Worship

The Word on Worship

I Wonder as I Wander