An Erratic Melody - The Lord of Heaven Come Near

Thursday afternoon, as our volunteers were cleaning up after The Salvation Army's community Thanksgiving meal I slipped into the chapel and began to quietly play my guitar.

(You might ask why I was playing my guitar instead of helping to clean up with everyone else.  I realized very quickly that my wonderful and very able wife was in charge of that meal and the volunteers who were helping.  When they asked me for directions, I told them to "go ahead and leave those tables up"... and she corrected me, "no, those tables come down."  So.  I let them finish.  (Actually, I went back in and mopped the floor later... so I wasn't completely lazy.)

Anyway.  There in the chapel after a very enjoyable Thanksgiving meal with members of our community, I began playing my guitar. And, while I'm not a great player, I did find myself playing a simple little melody.  I found a pencil and wrote down the notes and put together a Christmas carol: The Lord of Heaven Come Near 

It took me a bit to figure out the meter, though. It sounds nice as you sing it, but the melody switches back and forth between 4/4 and 3/4.  One person has already called it "erratic," which may not be entirely inaccurate -the meter does seem to wander.  But if erratic means "having no certain or definite course," then I would want to choose another word. It does have a definite course, it just takes an irregular path. 

And that, some would say, is very much like me.

So here is the sheet music for my newly penned Christmas carol.  You can download the arrangement I put together from the link above, or create your own. (If you'd give credit back to me here, that would be swell.)  

The Lord of Heaven Come Near