Sunday, December 28, 2008

Childbirth


We are headed off on a significant journey tomorrow.

We are going to the city 100 miles east of us to attend the birth of our tenth grandchild, a boy who will be born by C-section Tuesday at noon. He's our son and daughter-in-law's fourth son! Hooray, how exciting!

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Mary, Did You Know?

The beautiful Christmas song “Mary, Did You Know?” was written by comedian Mark Lowry in 1984.

According to Lowry’s web site, linked here, his church asked him to write a play for Christmas. In writing the play, he wrote a series of questions that he would like to ask Mary, the mother of Jesus. These questions were later used in the church play as fillers between scenes.

Buddy Greene wrote music for the questions six years later, and the song became “a modern Christmas standard” that “has been recorded by more than thirty different artists including Michael English, Kathy Mattea, Kenny Rogers, Wynonna Judd, Billy Dean, Natalie Cole, Donnie Osmond and Clay Aiken.”

It is an unusual approach to the subject of Jesus’ birth; through the questions, we see it from the viewpoint of Mary. Often when we see things from a different perspective than we are accustomed to, it develops new meaning for us.

At this address on YouTube, you can hear the song sung by Lowry as a background to scenes from the life of Mary—and Jesus.

I pray that you will find great meaning in Jesus Christ this Christmas, and that you will understand in a new way how he was God’s perfect lamb.