I just wanted to share a few thoughts on Mary and Joseph. They are such an important part of the Christmas story, and even they are starting to get the politically correct treatment lately from spiritual skeptics and naysayers. But, they were good, righteous people who willingly accepted the will of the Lord and bore and raised Jesus Christ. They were chosen to be the earthly parents of our Savior — what a humbling assignment to have.
The first song, I’m sharing with you today is called Mary’s Lullaby, by Wanda West Palmer. Sister Palmer was actually in my ward growing up. She and my mom used to write award winning road shows. She was a fun person, and always invited you to sit at her piano and sing when you came over to her house. The words to the song were adapted from a poem by Bertha A. Kleinman called a “A Yuletide Lullaby”. Sister Kleinman also wrote the words for the Primary song, “I Have Two Little Hands”. Sister Kleinman gave the poem to Sister Palmer because she thought it would be nice if it were set to music. Sister Palmer carried the paper with the poem around in her purse for two years, trying to come up with a tune, to no avail. One day she figured it out, just put the refrain to music, and Mary’s Lullaby was written. If you’ve ever been to the Mesa Easter Pageant, this is the song Mary sings right after she gives birth to Baby Jesus. Here is your assignment for today, go and read Luke 1. This is the chapter where we hear the most from and about Mary — who she was, and how willingly she accepted her job at the mother of the Lord.
I love Christmas bells — they are the sound of Christmas to me. One of my earliest Christmas memories was hearing the song “Silver Bells”. I felt so grown up when I’d memorized the words from a song book we had a home, and could sing along when the song came on the radio. There are so many songs about Christmas Bells, it was hard to choose which songs to choose to write about. Here are my top three.
One of my favorite books of all time is “In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Story” by David McCullough. It’s a short book and mostly pictures, but it tells the story of Christmas 1941, right after the US had been attacked at Pearl Harbor. It was a very dark time in our nation’s history. This book also tells the story of how the Christmas hymn, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” came to be and how that song, written in the 1850s, had a part in the Christmas of 1941. I think I also want to nominate David McCullough to narrariate the Ken Burns 9 part documentary on my life (haha).
Happy Sabbath! The perfect Christmas music for today is Handel’s Messiah. These are just a few of the selections from the First Movement, which talks about the prophecies of Christ’s birth and the miracle of His birth. I have many happy memories of singing the Messiah at Christmas and Easter times — in our stake choir growing up, and in college. A few years ago we had a Messiah sing-a-long here in my very small Northern New Mexico town. The choir and orchestra were made up of people from all over the community. I was blown away by the level of talent in our little town. For me singing the Messiah — whether it’s in a choir, or just singing along to youtube videos — never fails to uplift my spirit and helps to sink into my soul the love our Heavenly Father has for us, and how the birth of our Savior is a true miracle.
In Luke 2:4 we read, “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)” Bethlehem means house of Bread. It’s fitting that Christ, who proclaimed himself as “the Bread of Life” was born there.