"Rock-a-bye, my dear little boy, dear little boy,
wonder of wonders, my blessing and joy;
slumber as I gently hold you,
let my tender love enfold you;
gift of God to me and the world,
here in my arms lies so peacefully curled.”
The poetry is from a Christmas lullaby from Czech tradition. Any of us could sing the song as we hold our own child – or grandchild. Nancy and I could sing it now to a great granddaughter. “Rock-a-bye my dear little girl, love-gift of God in my arms safely curl.”
But the lullaby is the song of Mary – singing to her baby boy on the first Christmas morning. “Slumber as I gently hold you, let my tender love enfold you.” I confess that I cannot sing this carol without a tear breaking free from my eyelid and escaping down my cheek. I know the tender and overwhelming love of a new Daddy holding a minute-old baby boy. While the carol is about Jesus, my mind cannot help but race to the images of our children and grandchildren. The lesson of the carol for me is that God chose this very human and very, very ordinary way of revealing God’s personality and nature to the world. The carol draws me to an identity with Mary and Joseph; and it traces a remembrance that I was once someone’s newborn love. Such is the way of God: to draw on our experience in life to speak to us and to reveal to us the depths and wonders of love.
On this Christmas day, let your mind and heart feel the emotion of God’s tender love for this world. Heaven knows, this hurting, struggling world needs some tender lovin’! In the experiences of our lives, WE need some tender lovin’! More importantly, don’t we have some tender love to share?
“Little Jesus, Infant Divine, Infant Divine,
one with the Father, yet born to be mine;
as I rock you calmly sleeping,
angel guards their watch are keeping;
precious child, one day we shall see
what love has destined for you and for me.”
Merry Christmas!
Love,
Rev. Jack Lipphardt
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