Greene took them home and started working on some music. Then, while on tour with the Gaithers, he showed the lyrics to Greene and asked him to have a go. Several musicians tried to come up with melodies, but none fit, said Lowry. They stuck with Lowry, who thought they might work for a song if he could find the right music. Those monologues were the glue that held the show together, serving as a transition from one Christmas song to another. They eventually inspired a series of short monologues Lowry wrote in 1984 for a Christmas concert at Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, then led by Jerry Falwell. Those conversations also touched on spiritual topics, like the mystery of the incarnation, said Lowry-the Christian belief that God became human in the person of Jesus. Mark Lowry, cowriter of "Mary Did You Know?" He added that most of the questions he had did not make their way into the song-only the ones that rhymed made it. “What was it like to give him a haircut? Did she ever walk into his room and say, ‘clean this mess up’?” “Literally, what was it like teaching the Word of God to talk,” he said, referring to a title used for Jesus in the Gospel of John. Most revolved around the question: What was it like to raise the son of God? The idea for the song dates back to conversations the 63-year-old had with his mother about Jesus and Mary. Blige, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, and the a cappella vocal group Pentatonix. Recorded first by Christian singer Michael English, the song has become a modern Christmas staple-covered by some of the biggest names in the business: Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd, Mary J. Lowry co-wrote “Mary Did You Know?” with Buddy Greene, a well-respected songwriter and instrumentalist, in 1991, while both were on tour with famed gospel singers Bill and Gloria Gaither. “When you have one hit, you better end with it,” Lowry said in a recent phone interview. Whenever the storyteller and singer takes the stage for a concert, he always closes the show with the same song-“Mary Did You Know?”-no matter what time of year it is. For Mark Lowry, almost every day is Christmas.
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