There's a Song in the Air! There's a Song in my Heart!

For all of us, Christmas morning brings memories and one of my favorites is my Mother singing the Christmas carol "There's a Song in the Air!" She would have me play the carol, sing all the verses and then she would dance her funny little waltz to the rhythm of the 3/4 time of the music, all the while checking on the Rome beauty apples baking, watching for my grandparents to arrive, having my sister help her in setting her beautiful holiday table and helping Dad get a fire going in the fireplace. Whew - alot to do. But with all that activity she would stop at the end of each verse to make sure she didn't miss singing about the King that was born to all mankind. She truly knew the truth of this carol in her heart and would sing it often during the year, long past Christmas morning...or maybe getting ready for the next year!

This beautiful carol was written byJosiah Gilbert Holland who was a medical doctor and also helped originate Scribner's Magazine. The words for the song were included in a Sunday school hymnal in 1874 and it wasn't until about 25 later that Karl Harrington, a well known church musician in the Methodist church and one of the editors of the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, set the verses to the tune that we use today. And it is a lovely, lilting melody that just fits the words perfectly. Listen now: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/t/s/tsongair.htm

So often we hear this song sung quietly or with a kind of hushed reverence but I think Mom sang it best and as the angels sang it on Christmas morning - with exuberance, with gusto, with animation and definitely with Great Joy. And probably with dancing!

I mentioned that each verse ends with acknowledgement of the birth of The King -
vs.1 and vs2 are alike: "the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King".
The last 2 lines of vs. 3: "Every hearth is aflame -- and the beautiful sing in the homes of the nations that Jesus is King!"

And all of verse 4:
"We rejoice in the light, and we echo the song that comes down thru the night from the heavenly throng.
Ay! we shout to the lovely evangel they bring, and we greet in His cradle our Savior and King!"

After many years, when her dance was much slower, my mother's voice was still strong as she sang "There's a Song in the Air!" because she knew her Savior and King and she had the Song in her Heart. That is the greatest gift any parent can impart to a child, that knowledge of Jesus Christ as Savior and King, because that is the greatest gift ever given -- from our Heavenly Father to His children.

Rejoice! Sing with Joy! Celebrate the birth of our Savior and King! and go on, do a little dance!