New Christmas hymn - Mary Did You Know?

Mary Did You Know? - Christian song by Buddy Greene and Mark Lowry

This is a relatively new song in the Christmas season repertory. Lyrics by Mark Lowry, score by Buddy Greene. Our Celebration groups has been performing it in our big Christmas special service for many years. I was listening to out 1999 service the other day, getting into the advent season. We do it as a duet with the choir singing some backup. In 1999 we had Omari Tau and Kim Cade as soloists. We have never had better. Others have done a wonderful job too. Perhaps it is just that Omari and Kim were the first. They created the roles so to speak. I have it on cassette. The recording is not too good. So it's better I cannot share it. You could not experience it as I experienced it.

This song creates a wonderful word picture: Mary did you know how amazing your son would be? Mary did you know he would be God in the flesh. I think the implied answer is that Mary could not possibly know. She could not possible imagine. And neither can we. We cannot imagine what he did for us. We cannot imagine how God could be a human too. The God that created the vast universe grew as a fetus in a young woman's womb.

Google shows the song has been covered by Reba McIntyre, Kenny Rogers and Wynona Judd, and Clay Aiken.
Youtube search finds quite a few hits. I am biased but I do not think the Rogers-Judd duet is as good as the one we do. There needs to be more passion. The is Donny Osmond, Kathy Mattea, Daniella Dalli, and more. Perhaps the best solo is by original writer Mark Lowery.

Perhaps the power of the song is shown by the varying interpretations of the artists doing this song and how many "big names" are singing this wonderful song. I think this song may outlast our generation and become a permanent hit around Christmas time.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels tried?
And when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear and the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am.

Walking to Harry's

Saturday morning (not early enough) I walked to Franks. Then I called home and DD3 got up on the second attempt. She and DW made it over to Franks for a great comfort breakfast.

I had to wait at least 30 minutes to get a table. This place is small. Yet people keep their tables for a while. Actually service is lazy, even with all the waiting. Once you have the table there is no attempt to hurry you along. We bought two big breakfasts and split it for three people. That works great here, each of us got a good breakfast.

DD3 and her mom. Isn't it cute?











Me and DW. I'm too wet for her to snuggle.

Arbuckles in July

Fantasy

Fantasy
Should I go here? Probably not. I was thinking of the movie Peggy Sue Got Married. Do you remember the movie? Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and starring Nicholas Cage and Kathleen Turner. They all did a great job. Kathleen Turner is in a coma (I believe) and in her coma she goes back in time and relives her life. In real life her childhood sweetheart turned husband is cheating on her with a younger woman. She knows about it and they are facing divorce. In her dream she relives the more happy times with her boyfriend who she now knows she will eventually marry. So she decides, what they heck? "I will not wait until marriage. I will have sex with him now."

I think Hollywood writers love this kind of scenario. It's fantasy sex. It's sex with no consequences. There were several movies with mermaids turned to beautiful women. They were free fantasy sex to the lucky men who encountered them. I'm sure there are plenty of other situations I cannot recall now.

Well funny thing about changing history. It isn't so easy. When she propositions her boyfriend he freaks out. Cage has a great quote here, "That's a guy's line, Peggy Sue! That's a guy's line!" I just love dilemmas like that. Peggy Sue figures "What the heck?" I'm going to marry this guy and have sex with him in the future. This is not cheating really since we are destined to be married after high school. She is reliving her life but she knows the future. There is a funny line about an Edsel.

I remember high school and college dating a bit like the Cage character did. I would try to get a girl to go further with me after a date but truly expected, almost hoped she would say no. Somehow, weirdly, I felt it was my obligation to try. Yes, it was objectifying a girl. A girl saying yes would have freaked me out. This was quite a bit like fantasy. If a girl had tried to proposition me I would have freaked. I would not have had to say no or yes. Did that make me a tease? I imagine a lot of girls had me figured out.

Omari Tau Williams

My favorite section leader of all time. Omari Williams, now going as Omari Tau.

Keeping material things lightly

Loyola spoke of this. It was one of the things his disciples, the Jesuits, were supposed to do. One man, I forget his name, was exemplary in that when Loyola asked or volunteers to go to India. When someone got sick at the last moment he said, "Yes, I'll go." He was on the boat within a week. For most of us that would be impossible. Now the fact that he was single and had no family certainly helped. Few of us could be ready that fast. And remember there were several other Jesuits who did not jump up to volunteer. So yes, this man was exemplary.

I was thinking about this because it is so much fun to accumulate. But then at some point I have run out of room or lost the ability to keep track of all the stuff. Then I slow down the accumulation. I then try to cull items I don't need but that is much harder than getting them in the first place. This is all a part of having so much. My possessions run over, no doubt. When I die there will be so much for people to go through. I am concerned about that but I still have a hard time releasing things.

I couldn't even list all this things I have accumulated but a partial list is:
CD music,
Beta movies mostly taped off the TV (I still have them),
there are over 200 tapes with 2 or 3 movies on each tape most still work
VHS movies (only 100 of these),
DVD movies (second daughter bought most of these),
downloaded .avi movies,
cassette music,
old Redeemer albums
old Vineyard albums
old radio shows taped from the radio on cassette,
Oddessey radio shows (Focus on the Family) taped from the radio and some bought sets,
I have almost all of them until 2001 or so when
the kids positively got too old to care
books in several book cases,
Apple II software (I have so much of this stuff, mostly on 5.25" diskettes),
some restaurant matchboxes
many series of magazines that I have subscribed to (why?)

So I am certainly a negative example of holding things lightly.

Gilmore Girls, seven year compacted into 8 minutes

Such a great show, I need to pull out my DVD's.