Lynch's favorite composer, Carl Nielsen, set this remarkable Danish text; it can now be sung in English thanks to this new translation.

Text: English text © 2006 by Francis L. Lynch

My heart must always wander
The way that Jesus trod:
There all that I do ponder
Is centered on our God;
There longing finds it setting,
And faith its treasure meet;
Ne’er shall I be forgetting
That Christmas night so sweet!

But oh, my heart is weeping
When think I on that scene:
The God of heaven sleeping
In stable low and mean;
That Heaven’s joy and glory,
God’s living word, at birth,
In scorn begins his story
Here on this sinful earth.

In safety does she peek out:
The sparrow from her nest;
Nor need the swallow seek out
A place of nightly rest;
While in his den a-lying
The lion sleeps the day.
Why then is my Lord crying
In stable midst the hay?

My heart and soul I’m trying,
Oh Lord, to open wide;
A thousand sighs I’m sighing:
Oh Jesus, come inside!
No strange and lonely dwelling,
This place you dearly bought;
With love beyond all telling
These swaddling clothes are wrought.