A Christmas Song

I love Christmas songs. I can't sing one in church without a huge frog jumping up in my throat. I know I would probably get tired of them at some point, but I wish we sang them more often. How about you? In the blogging world I have read quite a bit about Herod today. It reminded me of one of my favorite songs to listen to this time of year. It is a song by James Taylor, and the name of it is "Home by Another Way". As you probably guessed, it is about the wise men and the threat of Herod capturing them. Obviously I don't agree with his phrase "the Gods saying play the odds", but the rest of the song is pretty good. Wait a minute, maybe he was talking about the Father, the Son and the Spirit! Let's give him the benefit of the doubt. In case you are interested, this song is off of his album "Never Die Young".

Here are the lyrics:


Home By Another Way


Those magic men the Magi
Some people call them wise
Or Oriental, even kings
Well anyway, those guys
They visited with Jesus
They sure enjoyed their stay
Then warned in a dream of King Herod's scheme
They went home by another way

Yes they went home by another way
Home by another way
Maybe me and you can be wise guys too
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way

Steer clear of royal welcomes
Avoid a big to-do
A king who would slaughter the innocents
Will not cut a deal for you
He really, really wants those presents
He'll comb your camel's fur
Until his boys announce they've found trace amounts
Of your frankincense, gold and myrth

Time to go home by another way
Home by another way
You have to figure the Gods saying play the odds
And go home by another way
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way

Home is where they want you now
You can more or less assume that you'll be welcome in the end
Mustn't let King Herod haunt you so
Or fantasize his features when you're looking at a friend

Well it pleasures me to be here
And to sing this song tonight
They tell me that life is a miracle
And I figured that they're right
But Herod's always out there
He's got our cards on file
It's a lead pipe cinch, if we give an inch
Old Herod likes to take a mile

It's best to go home by another way
Home by another way
We got this far to a lucky star
But tomorrow is another day
We can make it another way
Safe home as they used to say
Keep a weather eye to the chart on high
And go home another way