Even as a child, I found these lyrics curious. Does anyone else?
There’s a line in the chorus of “What Child is This?” that I found fairly impractical.
“This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing.”
Really? As a kid, I worried that King Herod could gather a Roman army to attack the stable, and the only defense is a fistful of lowly shepherds with their . . . staffs. I always figured the angels should do the guarding and the shepherds should do the singing. Perhaps the angels really couldn’t contain themselves, or the shepherds were really poor singers.
Of course, as I grew up, I learned about the Hebrew definition of the term “guard,” and that angels can multitask.
And then there’s the closing line from the first stanza of “O Little Town of Bethlehem,” a burdening line put to a pleasant melody.
“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.”
No pressure there, baby Jesus. But, of course, He’s the one and only Son of God and our Savior, so the hopes and fears of all humanity don’t stress him out.
Any you want to add to the list?
1 comment:
In "Away in a Manger," there's the line:
"The cattle are lowing; the poor baby wakes;
But little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes."
When I was was little, I used to picture a super divine baby that never cried. Of course, that's not true. So when I was teaching this carol to children this year, I said that baby Jesus really did cry. He just wasn't crying at the moment the writer was imagining in this song (when the cattle were lowing). --Sue G.
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