Jesus, What a Wonderful Child -
John 1:16 - From his abundance we have all
received one gracious blessing after another.
Many hymnals list “Jesus, What a Wonderful Child” as a
African American Spiritual assuming it was a song that was passed down from
slaves in the American south. However,
no official catalogues of African American spirituals include this song. In fact, most African American historians
contend that there are only a couple of those old songs that have any reference
to the Christmas story. Evidently,
Christmas for slaves was not really celebrated as a religious holiday. Often, it was kind of a “free” day for
them. In any case, not many of the songs
from that time are about Christmas and this is not one of them.
Most likely, Margaret Allison, the founder of the 1950’s
group called The Angelic Gospel Singers wrote the song. It became popular in smaller circles over the
years but when Mariah Carey covered it on her 1994 Christmas album, it became
popular with the masses.
My favorite line in the song is “new life, new hope, new
joy, he brings.” When I hear it and/or
sing it, it makes me think of all the people I have known that have found Jesus
later in life. I think of a man named
Rick in one of the first churches I served who became a Christian while I was
there. He said after he had accepted
Jesus, he said he “just laughed out loud for days” because he felt he was free
for the first time in his life. I think
of another man Harold who I baptized when he was 92. He had never felt worthy of being baptized
before that and he marveled how accepted he felt. There was hardly a dry eye in the church that
day. Others I think of don’t have quite
as dramatic stories, but their new found life, joy and hope was just as real. We can make the story of the birth of Christ
a big sentimental thing, but this song always reminds me that Jesus’s birth
changes lives forever. I am reminded
that his birth has changed my life forever as well.
My mother-in-law Dele used to say to me on my birthday,
“Eric, I’m glad you were born.” I was
always moved by that. Perhaps, we can
take a moment today to pray to our Savior, “Jesus, I’m glad you were
born.”
Question: How has
your life been different because Jesus was born?
Prayer: Jesus, I’m
glad you were born. I have new life, new
hope, and new joy because of you. Amen.
Prayer Focus: Pray
for those struggling with depression.
Jesus, What a Wonderful Child – Mariah Carey
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