For Unto Us A Child Is Born (Handel's Messiah, part 1)

Christmas Carols Explained, #24

I’m cheating a little bit on this one, but this is my show, I do what I want.

This isn’t quite a Christmas carol. It’s part of a larger symphony by Handel, who I mentioned yesterday in “Joy to the World.” There is nothing nebulous here though—this was definitely his work.

Unlike other compositions, the lyrics aren’t an entirely original creation. Handel takes the text directly from a reading of the Old Testament in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6:

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

For my money there is no version of this song that punches me harder in the heart than the Tabernacle Choir when they do their thing. I have powerfully fond memories attached to this arrangement, going all the way back to my first Christmas in the mission, on the cold plains of Aragon in northern Spain. We watched a Spanish translation of “Mr. Krueger’s Christmas,” starring the late legend Jimmy Stewart.

In the film (25 mins) he plays a man near the end of his life, with far fewer Christmases ahead of him than behind, and he has a tendency to fondly remember the past whilst daydreaming about the present. As he hopes for one more magical Christmas, he has a soft Charlie Brown moment and imagines himself at the Nativity.

The film is short and sweet and you can watch it on YouTube. The moment I remember most from it, except for the ending, is one of Mr. Krueger’s daydreams of himself conducting the Tabernacle Choir in their performance of a Christmas song. After we watched the movie we also listened to MOTAB’s rendition of Handel’s Messiah. This song and its message really colored the atmosphere of my first European Christmas and I’ll always treasure it for that. It was a Spartan Christmas compared to the ones I’d had at home, and in a way that was better, because it helped me to strip away the pageantry and focus on the true meaning of it.

Have a great Christmas Eve, everyone.