By Mark Wilmoth

Things don’t always go according to plan.

Back in 1737, Charles Wesley wrote a Christmas carol called Hark, How All the Welkin Rings, Glory to the King of Kings. Welkin is an old English word meaning “the sky” or “Heaven.” Wesley intended his carol to be sung to the tune you might recognize as “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.” (Go ahead, sing it to yourself, the words fit!). But 20 years later, George Whitefield changed the words to Wesley’s song to read, “Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King.” Like most poets, Wesley didn’t appreciate anyone thinking that they could better his words and he resented Whitefield’s version of the song. But look up Hark the Herald Angels Sing in a hymnal today and you’ll find Charles Wesley’s name in the top left corner (author), but Whitefield’s words in the first line. That’s definitely not what Wesley planned!

And then there’s the tune. We no longer sing the song to the tune of Christ the Lord is Risen Today. In the top right corner of today’s hymn, you’ll see Felix Mendelssohn credited as the composer of the music. Mendelssohn actually wrote his tune a hundred years after Wesley wrote those lyrics, and he wrote the tune for a song that celebrated the 400th anniversary of the invention of the printing press. The anniversary came and went, and the song passed into disuse since it was no longer timely. Mendelssohn still liked his tune, however, and he confided to a friend that he hoped someone would someday write new words to fit his tune, as long the words were not religious! But a few years after Mendelssohn died, someone noticed that Wesley’s song fit Mendelssohn’s tune, and Hark the Herald Angels Sing became the carol we sing today. Given Mendelssohn’s aversion to religion, it’s doubtful that either he or Charles Wesley would be happy with the modern version of the song; It isn’t what they had planned.

Still, considering the important role music plays in our modern celebration of Christmas, one has to wonder if it was what God planned all along! God’s plans often differ from ours, but God’s plan is always better.

Take, for example, Mary’s pregnancy. Mary, probably in her early teens, is “betrothed” to Joseph as his wife. In First Century Palestine, a betrothal was more binding than our “engaged,” because a divorce was required to dissolve the relationship. Legally, Mary and Joseph were considered to be husband and wife; they just didn’t sleep together. So, for Joseph, finding out that his “wife” was pregnant and knowing he wasn’t the baby’s father sure didn’t fit his plans! Joseph was planning his divorce when “…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21, NIV). “Do not be afraid” cuts to the core of the issue for those of us who are control freaks – we plan, meticulously, and we don’t want anyone to mess with the plan; we fear what might happen if events get out of our control. God’s words to Joseph remind him that while this isn’t the way Joseph planned it, it is what God had in mind. Matthew goes on to remind his readers that, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

Christmas celebrates the wonder of God’s plan to save humanity. After mankind ruined the perfection of the Garden of Eden and then spent thousands of years proving how evil we could be, God became a baby, born of a virgin. Jesus lived in a poor village, taught ignorant peasants and died on a cross “to save a wretch like me.” Whitefield might have improved the opening line to Wesley’s carol, but Wesley got the rest of it right: “Light and life to all He brings, ris’n with healing in His wings. Mild, He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.”

Mark Wilmoth is with Pinehurst Christian Church, in Marietta. For more information regarding Pinehurst Christian Church, visit www.PinehurstChristianChurch.org.