Sometimes we just get it wrong.

Charles Wesley, the great poet of the 18th Century, was a stoic. Now, I know what you're thinking - really? The man who penned "Christ the Lord is Risen Today!" Who taught us that "Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending!" But, for as exuberant and celebratory as Wesley's poems are, he held strong opinions that worship in church should be dignified and reserved. In fact, the original tune Wesley used for "Hark! The Herald..." was more stately than celebratory, more formal than festive.

The poem originally was dramatically different than we know it today. Wesley penned the words "Hark! How all the Welkin rings/Glory to the King of kings" ("welkin" being an old English word for the innermost courts of a palace). Over loud protest from the author, George Whitefield changed these lines to the more familiar, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing/Glory to the Newborn King" in the process completely changing the overall direction of the poem from Heaven's response to God's grace, to man's participation in God's redemption.

The original tune, a stately English folk tune, was replaced by William Cummings over one hundred years later. The new tune came from a Felix Mendolssohn concerto. Mendolssohn, a converted Jewish Catholic, composed the concerto in memorial of Johann Gutenberg's printing press.

Yet, through all these obfuscations, all of these twists and turns farther away from Wesley's original ideas, we are left with one of the season's most beloved carols. This carol, a testament to the joy that resounded not only in the heavenly courts, but in the hearts of men now reconciled to God, stands at the center of our celebrations in the Christmas Season.

Sometimes we just get it wrong - and sometimes, that's ok.