Twelve Songs of Christmas: #2—"Mary, Did You Know?" by Mark Lowry

The only truly Christian Christmas song on my list, "Mary, Did You Know?" has been a staple of the Christmas season in churches across America. It's gained mainstream success from a number of great renditions, notably by Pentatonix and, strangely enough, Cee Lo "F*** You" Green. In searching for the perfect version of this song to capture the emotion this song should rightly convey, I found a 2016 recording by an acapella group called Voctave singing with the song's author, Mark Lowry, on lead vocals.

Lowry is an unlikely candidate as the author and singer of one of the most popular Christmas songs in Christendom. He's a Christian comedian (another rare bird in its own right) whose shows emphasize the importance of laughter and joy in the Christian life. I like his act; while he's not as funny as most secular stand-ups, he is hilarious for those of us with an extensive church background, and he's a welcome antidote to what I call "the soul-crushing joylessness of Christianity." (If you don't know what that means, look at a picture of Vice-President Mike Pence.)

I really love the dichotomy between the divine theology and the human practicality expressed in the lyrics. When I try to understand the Bible, I think about it in terms of real people with real questions. You have to know that Joseph cried "bullshit" whenever Mary told him she was pregnant and God was the father. Yeah...right...that happens! We make this couple so holy that we miss the fact that they were real human beings with doubts and questions and fears.

Let's assume the truth of the nativity story, and let's think about Mary of Nazareth...a teenage girl giving birth to the Son of God. Don't you think she would have some serious, deeply troubling questions about what it all meant? Wouldn't you? We also need to think about Mary as one of Jesus's disciples, because she was. All those things that Lowry writes in the lyrics were things that Mary witnessed as she followed her son through his ministry. She was there at the end, too, witnessing his death and marveling at his resurrection.

This may be one of the most philosophically and theologically challenging Christmas songs ever composed. It's also one of the most beautiful, and if you can listen to this version without crying tears of joy, then I'm afraid your heart may be even smaller than the Grinch's was.