willing to learn from each other and work together instead of believing one group has all the answers. Te genie looks at the lady for a
second and says, “Do you want that highway to be one or two lanes?” Tere are times when we’re all
isolationist in our outlooks, but nothing jolts us from our narrow views as the strains of a beautiful Christmas carol. Among the many meanings the carols have for us, in addition to memories of family, friends and faith, is a realization that we aren’t the sole owners of the Christmas story nor is the music that celebrates it confined to any one nation, race, sect or period of history. Indeed, the Christmas carol, like
Christmas carols:
SHUTTERSTOCK
Songs of the world S
By Charles Dickson 26
www.thelutheran.org
omewhere I read a story about a lady who finds a magic bottle,
rubs it and a genie pops out offering to grant her two wishes. Te lady says she’s always wanted to go to Europe but is afraid to fly. Can the genie pave a high-
way across the ocean? “Too difficult,” the genie replies.
“What’s your second wish?” Te lady tells him she yearns for the day when religions will be
perhaps nothing else in our religious experience, opens our minds and hearts, helping us to appreciate just how much we owe to so many others and how absolutely universal is the appeal of this season (traditionally Dec. 25 through Jan. 6). One needs only to walk briefly
through the pages of Christmas carol history to realize how people from a multitude of backgrounds and situa- tions have responded to the message of peace on earth and goodwill. Human response to the Incarna-
tion has been global. While many carols originated in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia also have contributed. From Europe there are carols from the Austrian Alps such as “Silent Night, Holy Night!”; from Poland, “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”; plus the French carol “Te First Noel”; the German carol “Wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying”; and the Norwegian joyful song “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve,” to name but a few. From North America came the
Appalachian carol “I Wonder as I Wander”; from Canada “ ’Twas in the Moon of Wintertime”; plus “A
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