Away in a manger,
No crib for His bed
The little Lord Jesus
Laid down His sweet head
Both of the churches I grew up in had Christmas Eve services centered on children. The first Christmas Eve service I remember my brother and I were selected to play Mary and Joseph. The cast of characters for this nativity were all very very young so the extent of the play was walking across the front of the church while the opening hymn was played.
We were shown the path for our little parade with just two rehearsals. During this time the "manger" had a doll and our job as Mary and Joseph was to walk to the manger, stand by it, while the rest of the cast filed by, then we were to return to our seats. No one told us the newest member of our congregation, a two month old baby, was going to be in the manger the night of Christmas Eve. Imagine our surprise when we stopped at the manger and little fists started waving.
What were our young, amazed souls supposed to do besides drop to our knees and start singing "Away in a Manger" to the top of our lungs! (to this day I have no clue what the original hymn was intended to be). Needless to say, the congregation and organist soon followed our lead and joined us in this innocent and pure hymn.
I remember as young as we were, both of us being in awe of the moment, and the beauty of the newborn baby, there were tears rolling down our cheeks.
As adults, how do we get back the innocence and joy of hope born again at Christmas?
3 comments:
As a child I also remember the theme for church being being the scene with Mary and Joseph and the disciples and little baby Jesus in the manger ! I have always love that song because I was always told that the babies that were born were the sons and daughters of little baby Jesus that was in the manger! Never actually got to play in the theme at church , but always wanted too!
Amber Lynn
How to get back the awe and wonder? I suppose that varies from person to person, but a good place to start might be to stop hissing and bickering about what verbiage we use to refer to this holy season, and actually look in the manger rather than at what the other guy is doing.
Excellent point shell and one I tried to make in another blog. Seems so many of us, if not on the offensive take the defensive. I know I have. Sigh
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