Wondrous Childhood
1 Once in royal David's city
stood a lowly cattle shed,
where a mother laid her baby
in a manger for his bed:
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ, her little child.
2 He came down to earth from heaven
who is God and Lord of all,
and his shelter was a stable,
and his cradle was a stall:
with the poor, and mean, and lowly,
lived on earth our Savior holy.
3 And thro' all his wondrous childhood
he would honour and obey,
love and watch the lowly maiden
in whose gentle arms he lay:
Christian children all must be
mild, obedient, good as he.
I must confess that a little tinge of jealousy comes over me when I see the joy and anticipation of young families approaching Christmas. With my kids all grown up, there's no sneaking into their rooms at midnight to place a stocking on their bed and no waking up at 5:00am excited for what Christmas day will bring.
Oh to be a parent of little ones at Christmas! Take time to enjoy it moms and dads for it quickly passes.
An ordinary Child
On the one hand, the Lord Jesus passed through a childhood much like ours. He learnt not to play with fire by the odd burn here or there and how not to touch thorns by a wound here and there.
I know we should tread carefully in criticising much loved carols, but there is a line in "Away in a Manger" that is doctrinally weak. See if you can spot it:
That's right, Jesus the real human being must have cried as a baby, for the cry of a baby does not signify wrongdoing, it may shout "I'm hungry" or "I am tired" and both of those are sinless human needs.
Sorry if I have ruined Christmas for you! But we must sing truth, musn't we?
An Extraordinary Child
However, the childhood of Jesus can rightly be called, as our hymn does "a wondrous childhood," because Jesus never sinned as a child, just as he never sinned as a grown-up. So for sure, "thro' all his wondrous childhood
he would honour and obey."
His brothers and sisters must have noticed the difference. Never did Jesus hate. Never was he proud. Never did he lose his rag. Never stole a toy.
And so, yes, he sets a model for children everywhere, who having first believed and received the Spirit of God, may aspire in his strength to be "mild, obedient, good as he."
A SONG FOR THE DAY
There is a lovely hymn for children we sang with our kids when they were young, "I love to hear the story, which angel voices tell." Sing or hum along HERE.
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our gracious Father in heaven,
How we thank you for sending your dear Son into the world for our sakes. We will never know the cost to you and we will never be able to repay the debt we owe, so we thank you for grace which does not expect a return.
We thank you for the sinlessness of your Son, the whole of his earthly life. We are in awe of it, for he faced the fires of temptation as we do, yet always without sin.
We thankyou for a sinless Saviour and we worship him, Holy, Pure and Righteous.
We bring our prayers to you in His precious Name,
Amen
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