Glad tidings of great joy I bring, Whereof I now will say and sing.
To you, this night is born a Child of Mary, chosen mother mild;
This tender Child of lowly birth, Shall be the joy of all the earth.
'Tis Christ our God, who far on high Had heard your sad and bitter cry;
Himself will your salvation be, Himself from sin will make you free.
These are the tokens ye shall mark, The swaddling clothes and manger dark;
There shall ye find the young Child laid, By Whom the heav'ns and earth were made.
~ From Heaven Above to Earth I Come
Martin Luther, 1531
Written for his five year old son, Hans, this Christmas carol was simply called by Luther, "a Christmas child's song concerning the child Jesus" and was sung in the Luther's home at their Christmas Eve festivities.
I wrote the words as they were written on the sheet music. The tune sounds very familiar to Martin Luther's great hymn, "A Mighty Fortress is Our God".
I sit here on this bleak, though not quite winter day, and I listen to the excellent performance of Handel's Messiah performed by the Queens College of Oxford while addressing my Christmas cards. Chicken and dumplings were made in the mid morning hours and are keeping warm in the crockpot for tonight's supper. A candle of balsam pine glows and makes my house smell just like the evergreens of the forest.
