"we plow the fields and scatter"

Last year, during October, we taught "I sing a song of the saints of God" to our kids, in preparation for All Saints' Day. Now it's November, with another major holiday at the end of the month, and I've decided, "hey, it worked well once!" and we've started teaching the kids "We plow the fields and scatter" in preparation for Thanksgiving.

This is an especially good hymn to teach to children, because it has a chorus, as not many hymns do, and so they can pick up on part of the song very quickly, and, like any good chorus, it carries the theme of the rest of the song:

"All good gifts around us are sent from Heaven above;
Then thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all his love."

Our favorite method of teaching the kids a new song is just to sing it at bedtime. Do that for a month, and just about everyone will have it memorized, or close. (Which is good, because my husband and I don't have the verses quite down yet ourselves.)

Okay, all well and good, but here's the real puzzler: what song to we learn for Advent, in preparation of Christmas? So many good Christmas hymns, how to pick just one to concentrate on? I'm leaning towards "Hark, the herald angels sing!" just for all the good theology in it ("Veiled in flesh the Godhead see/Hail the incarnate Deity"). Well, okay, and 'cause I love it. But there's also the excellent and joyful, "Oh come, all ye faithful", which rivals it for both cheer and good theology ("God from God/Light from Light eternal/Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb").

We might just have to do two.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell