22 December 2025

Mild Monday - Mary and Joseph

I don’t ordinarily care much for contemporary Christian music, but sometimes I make an exception for a Christmas-related song that speaks to me. Today I’m sharing a pair of songs—one examining the perspective of Mary, the other the perspective of Joseph.

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The first song, “A Baby Changes Everything,” plays on the theme of Mary as a young woman finding herself unexpectedly pregnant. The repeated refrain echoes words that mothers have used to warn their daughters since time immemorial: a baby really does change everything you thought you had figured out about your life.

But this baby won’t change just Mary’s life…

The song was originally written by Faith Hill in 2008, but I encountered it in this version by Suzy Nash, and I like it better. Although Nash isn’t LDS, the music video uses footage from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ New Testament videos (it was these sets that helped make season 2 of The Chosen possible). Lyrics below.

“A Baby Changes Everything”

Teenage girl, much too young,
Unprepared for what’s to come;
A baby changes everything.

Not a ring on her hand.
All her dreams and all her plans;
A baby changes everything.
A baby changes everything.

The man she loves, she’s never touched.
How will she keep his trust?
A baby changes everything.
A baby changes everything.

And she cries, oh she cries, oh oh oh…

She has to leave, go far away.
Heaven knows she can’t stay:
A baby changes everything.

She can feel, He’s coming soon.
There’s no place, there’s no room.
A baby changes everything.
A baby changes everything.

And she cries, and she cries, oh oh oh…

Shepherds all gather ’round.
Up above, (star shines down) star shines down.
(A baby changes everything.)

Choir of angels sing
Glory to the newborn King.
A baby changes everything.
A baby changes everything.
Everything, everything, everything.
Hallelujah (Hallelujah)
Hallelujah (Hallelujah)
Hallelujah (Hallelujah)

My whole life is turned around;
I once was lost, but now I’m found.
A baby changes everything.
A baby changes everything.

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The second song is one I heard on the radio about 20 years ago, as we were driving home from a Thanksgiving visit to our friends in Wisconsin, just as a snowstorm was beginning. It captures Joseph’s confusion at the situation he finds himself in: “I’m not one to second-guess what angels have to say, but this is such a strange way to save the world.”

The song was written by David Allen Clark, Donald A. Koch, and Mark R. Harris and performed by the group 4Him in 1993. This video uses footage from The Nativity Story (2006). Lyrics below.

“A Strange Way to Save the World”

I’m sure he must have been surprised
At where this road had taken him,
‘Cause never in a million lives
Would he have dreamed of Bethlehem.

And standing at the manger,
He saw with his own eyes
The message from the angel come alive…
And Joseph said:

“Why me? I’m just a simple man of trade!
Why Him, with all the rulers in the world?
Why here, inside this stable filled with hay?
Why her? She’s just an ordinary girl!
Now I’m not one to second-guess
What angels have to say,
But this is such a strange way to save the world!”

To think of how it could have been
If Jesus had come as He deserved…
There would have been no Bethlehem,
No lowly shepherds at His birth.

But Joseph knew the reason
Love had to reach so far,
And as he held the Savior in his arms
He must have thought:

“Why me? I’m just a simple man of trade!
Why Him, with all the rulers in the world?
Why here, inside this stable filled with hay?
Why her? She’s just an ordinary girl!
Now I’m not one to second-guess
What angels have to say,
But this is such a strange way to save the world!
(vocalizations)
Now I’m not one to second-guess
What angels have to say,
But this is such a strange way to save the world!
This is such a strange way, such a strange way,
A strange way to save the world!
(vocalizations)
Ooo, a strange way to save the world…”

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Thoughts?