Christmas Carols

O Little Town of Bethlehem

 

 

Somewhere in time, this week, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  I did some Christmas shopping so I could get things in the mail to my family.  I really like wandering through the store halls and listening to Christmas music.  I’ll be honest I sometimes listen to Christmas music in July.  I think it’s fun to hear and sing along when it’s really hot outside. 

Then I started to wonder how some Christmas carols came into being.  Was the writer just sitting around and thinking they should write a Christmas song?  I went to the book, “Then Sings my soul” by Robert J Morgan.  If you ever want to know more about some classic hymns, I recommend this book.

I read the history behind the Christmas song, “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem”. 

In 1867 a minister named Phillip Brooks pastored the Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia.  He wanted to compose an original song for the children to sing in the annual Christmas program.  Now Phillip was not a small man.  He was six feet six inches and three hundred pounds.  Not the type of person I would envision as writing Christmas hymn. A few years before, he had been to the holy land and he attended a service at the nativity church.  He was inspired by what he saw and felt.  This was the inspiration for the words he wrote for his song.

He had the words, but he didn’t have the music.  He gave the words to the church organist to see if he could set them to music. Lewis Redner was the organist and he struggled and couldn’t find a tune that would work. He worried about it and prayed about it, but no tune came.  The day before the program, he woke up with the music in his heart.  Together the two composed the song we know and love, “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.

Micah 5:2 (NKJV) “But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah. Though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel. Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.

So I was right, someone was sitting around thinking they should write a Christmas song.  I’m positive God gave the inspiration, or the song would have been long forgotten. 

As we head into this Christmas season, let’s remember who the holiday celebrates and where it all began.

 

Ann Downing - O Little Town of Bethlehem from bill-and-gloria-gaither on GodTube.