Later Generations Reflecting on Christ's Birth: Song #30 "What Songs Were Sung"

Later Generations Reflecting on Christ's Birth

Song #30 "What Songs Were Sung"

This is my last song of the season. I intentionally chose to post it the day after Christmas because it is so contemplative. It's a good reminder after we've opened all the presents and enjoyed all the traditional customs and holiday parties. In our time Christmas is heavily adorned with lights and music and great fanfare, but this song reminds us that the actual event was much more solemn and sacred than we typically observe it. We can't know what sort of songs were actually sung at Jesus's birth. We know that the angels sang, but was it glorious music like Handel's Messiah or was it simple, peaceful, and worshipful? It's a song that really makes you think. When I sing it I reflect on what exactly it was like for those involved, how it has affected those who couldn't be there personally, and why the nativity story continues to endure for so many years among so many nations and cultures. 

Doctrine and Covenants 76:19-24, 40-41 
And while we meditated upon these things, the Lord touched the eyes of our understandings and they were opened, and the glory of the Lord shone round about. And we beheld the glory of the Son, on the right hand of the Father, and received of his fullness; And saw the holy angels, and them who are sanctified before his throne, worshiping God, and the Lamb, who worship him forever and ever. And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us. That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness.


"We cannot tell, we do not know what stars shone down so long ago when Mary birthed her own sweet Son and peace and love became as one.

The Son of God as scriptures said was Virgin born in a tiny shed where simple shepherds stood hard by while heav'nly sound filled up the sky. 

Now let us stand uncovered all before this cre'che in lowly stall where kings and angels dignify God's gift His Son in humility. 

We do not know, we cannot tell what songs were sung, what starlight fell or why the holy mystery stands for so many years in so many lands. 

We cannot tell, we do not know what stars shone down so long ago when Mary birthed her own sweet Son and peace and love became as one."

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