As I was writing Deck Your Halls, the song How Far is it to Bethlehem? kept coming to my mind. I was first introduced to the carol something like fifteen years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since. However, when I decided to include the lyrics in my piece, I made a pleasant discovery. The version I learned had only two verses. The full song has three.
I made another pleasant discovery when I recalled the name of the poet behind the words, one Frances Chesterton. I immediately wondered if this person was any relation to one of my favorite writers of all time, G.K. Chesterton. Right again! Frances was his wife, and she wrote the poem for a church Christmas play. How delightful! I don’t know how I’ve been humming this song all these years without making that connection.
It was the last verse that brought me to tears right there at the kitchen table where I was writing.
Great kings have precious gifts and we have naught,
Little smiles and little tears are all we brought.
For all weary children, Mary must weep
Here on His bed of straw, sleep children, sleep.
I don’t quite know why, but with each passing year I feel the Fall more deeply. I feel it with the accumulation of pain, grief for shattered expectations, and the deep weariness of life that in spite of the increasing joy in Christ I experience each new day…is just there.
Always.
I wanted to shrug it off like an old coat this year as Christmas, my favorite time of year, approached. But I couldn’t. So much so that it was an internal battle just putting up the Christmas decorations. So, this last verse consoled me.
I am poor. I don’t have great and precious gifts. I am weary. And the last verse seemed like a kind and merciful message from the Lord. “I know, and it’s alright. Rest now, here on His bed of straw. Rest in Christ. Sleep, child.”
Silly, maybe? I don’t know.
But that day, I hatched a plot to record this lovely carol—a quartet with myself—and present it to you as my little gift a few days before Christmas.
I hope you enjoy it and that it brings you rest, as well.
Sleep, children. Sleep.
That’s all for now. Until next time, folks…
Share this post