One singer stepped into the dark sanctuary, then another, and another in a single file. They brought light with them – each with a single candle forming a string of tiny diamonds that instantly, quietly transformed the space. As they processed, the girls sang the haunting melody of “Once in royal David’s city …” in clear acapella. The round notes rose and spread filling the space with pearls of sound.
I received these diamonds of light and pearls of sound with gratitude and relief.
As we entered the Christmas season that year, I was emotionally wiped out and bone dry. My husband and I had worked compulsively for too long; we ran our engines too hot and too long, we did not rest. The end of the year meant a mountain of paperwork at the medical office and an avalanche of grading at the university. And, I missed my daddy – like Jesus, he was a Christmas child who adored Christmas and children. His early death meant a void for my children and me where a wonderful person should have been.
I looked at the singers more closely – I knew them! And here came our daughter, Laura, among them. I knew they had been rehearsing but I had lost track of what. That fact startled me – usually I knew very well what our three teens were involved in. I was stunned that the choir had prepared so much beauty and they presented it with such maturity. All without me wringing my hands in worry! They and their music helped me and gave me Christmas joy.
1 Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for his bed:
Mary was that Mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.
2 He came down to earth from heaven
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall:
With the poor and mean and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.
The lyrics were written by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, an Anglo-Irish hymn writer, in 1848. She also wrote two other favorites of mine, “All Things Bright and Beautiful” and “There is a Green Hill Far Away.” The music is by Henry Gauntlett.
Susan Olmstead Wang 