Two favorite Christmas songs are White Christmas by Bing Crosby (number one selling single
record of all time) and I Wonder as I Wander out Under the Sky.
Each song is a bit forlorn when you think about it. The first is wishing for something, possibly
hoping to revive a past memory that no longer exists. The other, coming from the folk message
of ordinary peoples attempts to contemplate the proverbial “why.”
This time of year, I do more wondering than even a beautiful sunset by the lake in the depth of
summer might cause. Perhaps, with the leaves gone, the landscape appears in unobstructed
views, so I wonder more about what was hidden behind the leaves and shrubs.
I wonder what the African American man, doing the necessary maintenance work on the light
poles on the northside, felt as he looked up and saw the house on the corner with its
Confederate Flag flying proudly alongside the American Flag. I wonder how it is that in one of
the richest nations in the world inviting the richest people in the world to gold-plated state
dinners are routinely on the TV alongside the multiples of ads with stories of children who will
die without donations to hospitals or warm coats for a winter.
I wonder how it is that we can, on one hand, sing songs of the Prince of Peace while one of our
states proudly executes people by firing squads and works even harder to pick up the pace of
those executions. I wonder, how it is that in a few short weeks we will sing a song about the
one called Savior who had no place to lay his head, born in a stable while watching us convulse
daily over the call to drive the homeless from our streets or immigrants from ‘our’, God’s land.
I wonder how one man’s wage can be $100 billion a year while the average American, working
full time, is paid $36,000 a year. I am hopeful that wondering is a good place for all of us to start
in our soul searching of who and what we follow this season of Holy Days. I wonder how we can
do better. I wonder what you wonder about this season as you “wander out under the sky.”
Rev. David Plant
Defiance
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