I Wonder as I Wander

Yesterday while listening to a Christmas CD I heard the words to "I Wonder as I Wander" sung thus:
I wonder as I wander out under the sky
How Jesus the Savior did come for to die
For poor lonely people like you and like I;

I'm never sure why people record songs with different words than the author's. John Jacob Niles original version calls us poor ornery people, not lonely ones.

Turns out the idea for the song came from the daughter of a poor evangelist who Niles heard sing the first three lines, then he developed the rest.

Jesus didn't really need to die for lonely people, he could just come and be with us. But orneriness, that needs redeeming. Niles' haunting melody helps us consider the reality of Jesus' sacrifice, as he goes on to say:

If Jesus had wanted for any wee thing
A star in the sky or a bird on the wing
Or all of God's angels in heav'n for to sing
He surely could have it, 'cause He was the King.

Yet Jesus did not demand these things, but instead accepted the humble lot of his parents and the sacrifice on our behalf. The real beauty of this song comes if we actually do, wonder as we wander, truly pondering what Christ did in coming at Christmas.

Singer or not, take these words to heart as you consider the coming of the Christ Child.