December 14 

I Wonder as I Wander 

TEXT AND TUNE: Traditional Appalachian

Text and Melody

Adapted and arranged, John Jacob Niles

b. April 28, 1892, Louisville, Kentucky

d. March 1, 1980, Lexington, Kentucky

John Jacob Niles was born into a musical family with a great-grandfather who was a composer, an organist, and a cello manufacturer! Niles learned music theory from his mother, and at a young age, he was inspired to collect folk music from the hills of Kentucky. Eventually, Niles enrolled in the Cincinnati Conservatory, from which a professional career in music began. From Chicago to New York, from the opera house to the nightclub, he performed and perfected his trademark style of folk singing. His concerts and recordings of traditional mountain and African American material brought great acclaim. From this material, two Christmas songs grew to be his most well-known: “Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head” and “I Wonder as I Wander.”

Niles’s own words written on an album tell the remarkable story of this carol:

“I Wonder as I Wander” grew out of three lines of music sung for me by a girl who called herself Annie Morgan—a tousled, unwashed blond, and very lovely. She sang the first three lines of a verse. Introducing myself, I asked her about the song. All she knew about it was that her mother had taught it to her and her grandmother taught it to her mother. At twenty-five cents a performance, I tried to get her to sing all the song. After eight tries … I had only three lines of verse, a garbled fragment of melodic material—and a magnificent idea. With the writing of additional verses and the development of the original melodic material, “I Wonder as I Wander”came into being. I sang it for five years in my concerts before it caught on. Since then, it has been sung by soloists and choral groups wherever the English language is spoken and sung.³¹

As you sing this hymn … it demands to be sung simply and quietly. The melody is haunting, and you can easily picture someone wandering alone at night, looking at the stars, and asking: Why did Jesus come? Why for “on’ry” people? (Some versions change the otherwise understood “ornery” to “ordinary.”) Why die for them? These are common questions for anyone who has not met the Savior. On a human level, the story of Christmas resulting in Good Friday does not make sense! The questions are not answered in the carol.

Only because of Easter does the death of Jesus makes sense. His sacrificial death would be meaningless had He not risen from the dead. The colloquial term “on’ry people” reaches to the heart of it. We are sinful and condemned people. “Ordinary” is not strong enough. Without Him, we are doomed. John 3:17 makes it clear: “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.” Perhaps you have wondered, is this all true? Perhaps you even want to believe but you simply don’t understand. If so, you are like Nicodemus who came to Jesus one night and asked what he must do to be saved. Read Jesus’ answer to him in “Christmas in the Bible,” #32–35.

Jesus used the language of birth when He told Nicodemus that he must be “born again.” You too must have a “nativity” of your soul. If you have not already, make this Christmas the beginning of your life! Cry out, “Hosanna, Lord Jesus!” He will save you.