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It Is Written

John Bradshaw

A Blessed Little Christmas

Coming up next, please stay tuned for It Is Written, presented by Pastor John Bradshaw.

Among the songs you hear playing at Christmas when you're out shopping or listening to a playlist of Christmas tunes, you're almost certain to hear, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

It's been recorded hundreds of times by some of the most acclaimed recording artists of modern music history.

Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, even the Muppets.

You'll find it on Christmas albums recorded by more recent artists such as Michael Buble and Josh Groban.

Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas was written by a man named Hugh Martin.

And while the song lives on today, the story behind the melody isn't often heard.

It's a story about Christmas, about fame and fortune, about illness and depression.

It's a story about friends who become family.

But mostly it's a story about encountering God and coming to learn that knowing Him is infinitely more meaningful than all the glitz and glamour that life can offer.

Like many musicians whose names have appeared in lights, his love of music began when he was a small boy.

His mother made frequent trips to New York, and she'd come home to Birmingham, Alabama with stories about the newest music she'd heard, which encouraged Hugh to 1 day visit the Big Apple himself.

As an aspiring pianist, 20-year-old Hugh took a trip to New York City with his mother, and he met a woman named Helen Morgan, 1 of the major Broadway stars at the time.

Back home he became a well-known pianist and singer, but he knew that if he wanted to make it big, New York was the place to be.

Finally, the day came when Martin, with only a little cash in his pocket but with a heart full of desire, made the big move.

Like many other working musicians in Manhattan in the 1930s and 40s, he struggled to make a name for himself while playing as many gigs with as many groups as he could find.

It was the golden age of music, and while motion pictures were on the rise, Martin was a creature of the theatre.

He later wrote, The theatre was flourishing.

Scores of playhouses were open and playing to good business.

Plays and musicals made sense with a beginning, a middle and an end, an end that more often than not left the theatre-goer satisfied, fulfilled and edified.

The musicals flowed with melody, even when the libretto didn't make much sense.

And the weightier plays profoundly comforted the afflicted and afflicted the comfortable.

Along the way, Martin met Ralph Blaine, 1 of a wave of aspiring young musicians in New York.

By the late 1930s, the pair became 1 of the great American songwriting teams for both stage and movie musicals.

In 1937, Martin started a four-person vocal group he called The Martins, choosing Blaine as 1 of the singers of the group.

In 1939, they caught their break when they were called to join Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney on the stage of the Capitol Theater in New York for appearances MGM had organized to help promote the opening of the film, The Wizard of Oz.

It was the kind of opportunity Hugh had been hoping for, and it thrust him into the limelight.

Martin and Blaine collaborated for years and his chance to meet and work with Judy Garland led to exciting opportunities.

Martin looked up to Garland writing, There is little doubt in my mind that the greatest singer of pop songs in my lifetime, and possibly in anyone's lifetime, is Judy Garland.

As a result of working with Garland, Martin and Blaine received an offer from MGM to work for the studio as songwriters.

At the time, MGM was the dominant Hollywood film studio and the most profitable.

Just prior to the offer, the songwriting duo had success with their first stage musical, Best Foot Forward, which was choreographed by Gene Kelly, another giant of the stage and screen.

Hugh Martin was making it big, and at MGM he again crossed paths with the woman he called the Queen of the Lot, Judy Garland.

And it was there that Hugh would pen 1 of the most beloved Christmas ballads ever for a new film in which Garland was starring.

But as big as that was, just around the corner, there was an even bigger engagement waiting for Hugh, bigger than MGM, and grander than performing with the Queen of the Lot.

It was a meeting with royalty, a life-changing encounter with the King of the Universe.

How God changed a songwriter's life in just a moment.

For 2000 years it's been the hope of the Christian church.

It's a major theme of the Bible and the focal point of the book of Revelation, the return of Jesus to the world.

Call now for your free copy of The Soon Return of Jesus.

Learn what the Bible says on this vital subject and untangle many modern myths.

Sometime before 1944, Hugh Martin and Ralph Blaine received a call from MGM to write the music for the film Meet Me in St.

Louis, which produced a couple of hit songs.

And although both Blaine and Martin received credit for composing the song, it was Martin who wrote the melody known today as, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

When she heard the song for the first time, Judy Garland refused to record it.

She said, the audience will think I'm a monster.

It was written to feature in a scene in which a man tells his family they must move from St.

Garland's character comes home to find her little sister heartbroken at having to leave her home behind.

Next year we may all be living in the past.

Next year, we may all be living in the past.

Next year, we may all be living in New York.

No good times like the olden days, happy golden days of yore.

Faithful friends who were dear to us will be near to us no more." And so on to, So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

You can understand why the superstar Garland wasn't keen on singing it.

But after protesting strongly, Martin rewrote the words and created the Christmas song still heard 80 years later.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas Let your heart be light Next year all our troubles will be out of sight.

Next year all our troubles will be miles away.

Once again as in olden days, happy golden days of yore, faithful friends who are dear to us will be near to us once more.

And ending with those well-known words, so have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

And so was born a Christmas song that would still be getting airplay 8 decades later.

Hugh Martin's name was now on par with the greatest songwriters of the golden age of music.

But that wasn't the end of the story for Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, nor was it the end of Hugh's story, because God was about to make his big entrance.

Although Hugh would continue to write for MGM and share the stage many times over with Judy Garland, it was in 1960 that his journey would take a very different turn, 1 that would quite literally change his life from that point on.

While crossing the Atlantic for an engagement in London, Hughes suddenly became very ill, so ill that he wasn't able to sleep or keep any food down.

He fell into such a deep depression that he committed himself to a mental health facility in London.

1 day he wandered to the basement of the facility and found a chapel.

There he became what he described later as a small terrified child.

He prayed a desperate prayer, I don't even know that there is a God, but if there is, if you can hear me, please, please pull me out of this miry pit.

It was the first time he'd ever spoken to God in a real and meaningful way.

There in a cold, dark basement, far from the stage and lights and glamour, Hugh Martin had an encounter with God, the impact of which wouldn't be fully felt until years later.

When he got well and returned to the States, he continued to write songs.

Then, 14 years after that initial illness, he fell ill again and was admitted to St.

Vincent's Hospital in his hometown of Birmingham.

As he tells the story, when he and his brother arrived at the hospital, he heard a voice which said clearly, Hugh, share your room.

Arrangements had already been made for Hugh to have a private room, But when he heard the voice a second time, he insisted they check with reception to see if he could share a room.

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A Blessed Little Christmas

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