Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as he.
Mrs Alexander's Once in royal David's city is one of her Hymns for Little Children, first published in 1848 (when she was still Miss Humphreys). The little book of hymns went through over sixty editions in her lifetime, and some of the hymns, like this one, are still sung with pleasure by young and old.
It is good to see Christmas with the eyes of a child. (Come to our Nativity service!) It is good to recapture some of that innocent wonder the shepherds would have experienced when they heard the angels singing "Glory to God in the highest heaven"; the wonder when they "found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger"; the wonder which Mary and Joseph would have experienced when the mysterious visitors arrived with their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. There is an air of excitement about Christmas which the older folk among us are in danger of losing.
"The whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now" wrote Paul (Rom. 8:22). With the birth of Jesus, the way to salvation was laid wide open - in the words of another carol, "the hopes and fears of all the years" were met in Bethlehem when Christ was born.
Miss Humphreys taught little children, and her hymns usually have an element of instruction in them. (One of her hymns, which has fallen out of favour since her time, begins: Little children must be quiet / When to Holy Church they go, / They must sit with serious faces, / Must not play or whisper low.) The lines at the head of this article contain one of many truths about Christ's coming.
For God was no longer a distant being, hidden behind clouds and issuing commandments to be set down on blocks of stone and scrolls of parchment. God was here as one of us, living a human life, sharing in our joys and sorrows. "Tears and smiles like us he knew." To lead the sort of life God wants, we need only imitate Jesus, who "left an example, so that we should follow in his steps." (1 Peter 2:21).
But is being a Christian simply a question of sitting and asking ourselves what Jesus would have done in our own situation? Can we actually know what Jesus would have done in our own situation? How do we know that Jesus was "mild, obedient and good"? The Gospel writers do not tell us anything about his childhood, except that when he was twelve he caused his parents "great anxiety" (Luke 2:48). If we take the Bible as our guide, we will get no clear instructions on whether we should let our children play video games, or whether we should volunteer to fight in Afghanistan.
Christmas is a time of new beginnings, of new life. The season itself provides a chance to grow closer to God. Amid the carols we can hear the message of the angels, that a new era of peace and joy has dawned. If only the world could hear the same message! For it is not just a message for our own ears, but for us to spread around us.
At Christmas, God came into the world in a unique way, sharing our own flesh and blood (and, incidentally, sharing his own flesh and blood with us). But from the beginning of his life, he was there not only for individuals, but for a wider community. He was not visited by one shepherd, but by a whole troop of them. He was not visited by one wise person (not even necessarily by three!) but by a group of them. Although he met and talked with individuals - Nicodemus, Zacchaeus, the Samaritan woman, he gathered groups around him, with an inner group of twelve. And these twelve (or eleven of them plus Matthias (Acts 1:26)) became the nucleus of his church.
Being like Jesus means living together with others, living in a community, sharing ourselves. We are Christ's body now, and the letter to the Corinthians describes how each of us should fit in and play our part, respecting each other and valuing each other's talents. If only we could!
HD