{"id":337,"date":"2020-12-11T16:48:04","date_gmt":"2020-12-11T21:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=337"},"modified":"2020-12-11T16:48:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T21:48:04","slug":"away-in-a-manger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/11\/away-in-a-manger\/","title":{"rendered":"Away in a Manger"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In an 1883 collection of Christmas carols, Away in a Manger <\/em>was called \u201cLuther\u2019s Cradle Hymn.\u201d\u00a0
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This note followed:\u00a0 \u201cComposed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.\u201d
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Nice try.<\/em>
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Today we know that James Murray of Cincinnati composed the tune in the late 1800s.\u00a0 No one has positively identified the author of the lullaby text, but it seems certain it wasn\u2019t Martin Luther some 350 years earlier.\u00a0 That assertion was apparently a promotional gimmick designed to sell copies of the book.\u00a0
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What no one doubts is that Away in a Manger <\/em>has been the world\u2019s most popular children\u2019s carol for a very long time:
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Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head.<\/em>
The stars in the sky looked down where He lay:\u00a0the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.<\/em>
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The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes; but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.<\/em>
I love Thee, Lord Jesus, look down from the sky, and stay by my cradle til morning is nigh.<\/em>
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Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay close by me forever, and love me, I pray.<\/em>
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, and take us to heaven, to live with Thee there.<\/em>
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This rendition by the late John Denver<\/a>, surrounded by children, speaks to the tender heart of this carol.

That doesn\u2019t mean that Away in a Manger <\/em>should be confused with a theological term paper.
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Consider this line in the second verse:\u00a0 \u201cThe cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes.\u201d
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It may be that the author is simply presenting a peaceful snapshot of the Nativity.\u00a0 But a great many people have taken these words to mean that Jesus was somehow the Amazing Non-Agitated Baby, even though he apparently had to share his quarters with a couple of bovine roommates.\u00a0
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Real babies cry.\u00a0 <\/em>And they soil their diapers.\u00a0 They spit up.\u00a0 They keep us awake at night.\u00a0 And sometimes they\u2019re cranky and colicky for no discernible reason.
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What Scripture tells us is that Jesus was a real baby.\u00a0 He shared 100% of our humanity.\u00a0 It\u2019s safe to assume he cried rather often.\u00a0 Because that\u2019s what real babies do.
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Over the centuries, a number of would-be disciples have stumbled over another inference concerning Jesus\u2019 birth:\u00a0 If Jesus was a \u201creal infant,\u201d that would mean he was vulnerable<\/em>.
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Babies cannot defend themselves.\u00a0 They cannot run when there is trouble or danger.\u00a0 They cannot provide their own warmth or nourishment.\u00a0 Are we really supposed to believe that God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, was actually in danger from viruses, careless caregivers, or Herod\u2019s infanticide squad? \u00a0Wasn\u2019t he endowed with super-powers that shielded him from harm?
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Christians would affirm that in some manner Jesus was providentially protected.\u00a0 After all, he grew up during a period of history when half of all little ones didn\u2019t live to see their fifth birthday.
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But his security had nothing to do with supernatural bubble wrap \u2013 something all too evident when his body was bloodied by whips and pierced by nails.
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The good news is that because Jesus shares 100% of our humanity, nothing can happen to us that he hasn\u2019t in some fashion personally faced.
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Which means all this weekend we\u2019ll be in the presence of a Savior who knows what it means to cry.\u00a0
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In an 1883 collection of Christmas carols, Away in a Manger was called \u201cLuther\u2019s Cradle Hymn.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This note followed:\u00a0 \u201cComposed by Martin Luther for his children and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.\u201d\u00a0Nice try.\u00a0Today we know that James Murray of Cincinnati composed the tune in the late 1800s.\u00a0 No one has positively identified the author of the lullaby… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9,23],"class_list":["post-337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas-carols","tag-incarnation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":339,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}