Last summer I decided to start a new side-quest.  Not because I needed one but because I wanted a creative outlet for my love of travel and thus my "BethanyOnTheRoad" YouTube Channel was born.  I've LOVED putting together videos of hotel room tours, short term rentals and also attractions such as mountaincoasters, waterslides and anything else I get to experience along the way!  I'd love it if you checked it out and hope it might help you plan a trip of your own!  I'll link to some of my favorite videos below.

Carnival Horizon Cruise Ship "Standard Balcony" Room Tour

The 12 South Carriage House Short Term Rental Tour

Nalu Adventure Pool Waterslide Wailea Beach Resort

Lost Mine Mountain Coaster Daytime Ride

Moxy Banff Canada Hotel Room Tour

Both the text and tune {KINGS OF ORIENT} were written by John H. Hopkins, Jr. {B.1820 D.1891} a cradle Episcopalian  whose father was a "big-wig" in the Episcopal scene in Vermont serving as their second bishop and founding the Vermont Episcopal Institute of which the Jr. Hopkins would be the assistant.  He was considered a "down to earth man" (and as one of 12 siblings, you'd assume he'd have to be) and became an ecclesiologist, or one who studies church architecture and adornment.  His list of accomplishments is long and varied and ranges from being responsible for the installation of tile floors and steam heat in the Sunday School Building of a church where he served to providing the Eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S Grant in 1885.  Hopkins never married but served the church with his many gifts until his death.

This arrangement was improvised by B. Bordeaux in January 2022.

When I was a kid, every time "We Three Kings" was sung at Christmas, my Dad would chuckle and say, "When I was a kid, we used to sing it 'We three kings of Orient are, trying to smoke a rubber cigar.  It was loaded and exploded...." I don't remember the rest of the lyric and likely it was because that was right around the time my Mom would swoop in with and admonishing "MA-son!" (and the same look of embarrassment I know she has at this very moment reading this on her computer screen) and Dad would get all wide-eyed and say, "What!? That's what we used to sing when we were kids!" and I would sort of fade out of the scene as best I could half delighted and half horrified at the thought of bending the lyrics to a song about Jesus.

I think about the wisemen a good bit during the Advent season actually because of the unique role they play.  The shepherds and angels and the stable owner were all there in real-time to see the blessed event unfold (anticlimactic as it might have seemed to find a baby in a feeding trough). Sure they recognized the Baby as the Savior, but they also were "in the room where it happened."  The wisemen however had a journey.  A roughly 2 year journey.  Through what couldn't have been easy terrain.  I'm always amazed that they saw the star and believed the prophecy of the birth of this Baby King to the extent that they would follow the star, for literally years to find the Christ Child, especially when their visit to Herod was less than encouraging.  I wonder too, how long was that palace encounter?  Did they water their camels?  Perhaps bathe and eat a meal?  Or even have to wait a few days before Herod would grant them an audience?  I hardly can imagine that they waltzed right on in and asked where to go in the space of the few minutes it seems to take in Scripture.  And then the courage to return a different way.  The whole thing is truly a beautiful reminder to me that even when God calls you on a specific journey, it likely will still require courage, obedience, patience and discernment, but the reward will be an encounter with Christ.

Our director of music had originally left this tune out of the Sunday morning order of worship as he planned to include it in a celebration we have the evening of Epiphany.  Unfortunately, bad weather and an uptick in COVID caused that service to be cancelled.  Each Sunday service, one musician provides an instrumental setting so that the rest of the musicians can take communion.  Since this tune wasn't otherwise being used that morning, I chose it as the instrumental communion offering and improvised the version you see here. 

I knew that I wanted to bring you something special for Thanksgiving and was thrilled to have the opportunity to tape a song with my dear friends David and Michelle a few weeks ago when we filmed the CD Release.  "We Gather Together" was the first Thanksgiving hymn that came to mind and I was excited to play it as it is such a beautiful tune.   ​We recorded the song and then I sat down to write the blog and honestly was a little disappointed when I began my research.  The hymns origins, as well as its lyrics upon closer examination, weren't quite what I hoped.

While it holds a place in most hymnals as a "Thanksgiving Hymn," "We Gather Together" was originally a Dutch song written in the 1600's celebrating the Netherlands' victory in their war for independence from Spain.  The lyric talks a good bit about escaping oppression and the like, and while that's certainly something to be thankful for it just wasn't really what I was going for when I was thinking "Thanksgiving."  David Madeira had had the brilliant idea to weave in "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" and as I re-read that lyric, I realized I wanted this entire episode to be a little more along those lines of God's provision, wonder at His creation, and celebration of the goodness of God...and a little less of a military victory declaration.  Plus, not many of us are physically gathered together during this COVID season anyway, so it just didn't seem to fit.

And then I started researching the hymn-tune, KREMSER and found the most beautiful lyric to "We Praise Thee, O God."  It made me chuckle a bit that these lyrics were written as replacements for We Gather Together...perhaps I'm not the only one who found the original slightly wanting.  But if ever there was a song written with a posture of thankfulness, We Praise Thee is absolutely it.  Particularly in this season of political tumult, the concept of "with voices united our praises we offer, our songs of thanksgiving to you we now raise" seems especially appealing and beautiful.  And paired with the recounting of all the ways the Lord is faithful to us, I realized the canvas had been painted with exactly the picture of Thanksgiving I had in my heart that I was longing to share with you all.  Our tables and our gatherings might be smaller this year, but the heart of our faithful God is still unfathomably large and for that, I am very thankful.
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The special guests on this episode are David Madeira and Michelle Margiotta.

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Post Script: As a kid, my mom taught me alternative lyrics to this tune to help me memorize the facts about the landing at plymouth rock which I thought I'd post here, just for fun.  I figured we already had 2 sets of lyrics for this tune, why not go for 3? 

"The year 1620 the pilgrims came over
The good ship Mayflower brought them o'er the sea. 
They landed at Plymouth Rock, then built up their houses.  
​At harvest time they started our Thanksgiving Day."

​*underlined portion via Hymnary.org