See this child laid in a manger

See this child laid in a manger, with his father standing by;

Mother resting from her labor gives a warm and weary sigh.

Jesus Christ as infant coming, all creation standing by.

 

See this child brought to the Temple, cradled in his mother's arms.

Hear the cries from nearby strangers to his parents' great alarms.

Prophets name the child as holy, who for us will suffer harms.

 

See this child and family dwelling, knowing not the threat they face.

Sages from the Eastern empires bear him gifts with awe and grace.

Then, by royal rage endangered, must the family find safe space.

 

See this child back in the Temple, asking questions wise and true.

When his parents found him still there, they chastised with much ado,

But he said, "I am my Father's, and his business I must do."

 

See this child back with his family, growing up and growing wise,

Growing in his Father's favor and as well to human eyes.

Let us learn this holy pattern; let his model be our prize.

 

 

TEXT: Charles Spence Freeman, December 2023, after passages from Luke 2 and Matthew 2

MUSIC: Tune TRINITY, Peter Cutts, 1983, as found in The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990. Copyright 1983 Hope Publishing Company. All rights reserved. (not reproduced here due to copyright)

 

 

I don't know why, when I am normally quite proficient at working with public domain tunes, I keep coming back to this one tune that didn't even make it into Glory to God. (It is in the previous 1990 The Presbyterian Hymnal, which is where I first learned it.) This is the third text of mine that has latched onto this tune and refused to let go. The text was provoked by an online discussion of the sometimes-cloying sentimentality of hymns or carols that try to take up Jesus's infancy/childhood, of which we know little. I tried to stick with those things that we do have in scripture, which mostly comes from Luke 2 (with a dash of Matthew 2 thrown in).