December 6

I Wonder As I Wander

by Jill Aldrich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_UEDzZ-Zuk

The Morgan family and John Jacob Niles were well acquainted with wandering. The Morgans traveled as itinerate revivalists and singers in search of lost souls to save in the Appalachian Mountain countryside. Niles, as a folklorist, was in search of the ancestral music of the Scottish-Irish people whose homesteads dotted the hills and hollers of the same region. One fortuitous afternoon in July 1933, the Morgan’s teenage daughter, Anne, whose angelic soprano voice overshadowed her dirty, disheveled appearance, sang for $.25 per verse while Niles furiously transcribed. After eight tries, he stated, “I captured multiple lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material – and a magnificent idea.” This encounter produced the American Christmas carol, I Wonder as I Wander.

 St. Augustine's quote, "Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You," speaks to the reality of humanity, as wanderers all. This word literally means “to aimlessly stray.” Isaiah 53:6 speaks prophetically of this: “We…have all gone astray, everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”  This prophecy’s fulfillment is the “promise of ages,” and His purposeful coming is echoed in the phrase, “How Jesus the Savior, did come for to die, for poor on’ry people, like you and like I.” In the Appalachian dialect on’ry means stubborn but also translates as ordinary. Both are apt. It perfectly describes our resistance to God’s way and our shared, common condition as sinners. 

The most natural response to the incarnation is to wonder about it all. It is a feeling of surprise mingled with awe caused by something unexpected or inexplicable. No birth could be more unexpectedly ordinary than “when Mary birthed Jesus…in a cow’s stall,” or more extraordinarily wondrous because “He was the King!” This full of wonder event is perfectly summarized in Luke 1:78, 79: “Because the heart of our God is full of mercy towards us, the first Light of Heaven shall come to visit us—to shine on those who lie in darkness and under the shadow of death, to guide our feet unto His way of peace.” Rejoice! As recipients of God’s Gift, Jesus, we gratefully relinquish our weary wandering to walk in His way as worshipful wonderers.