The Babe, the Son of Mary

There are so many songs heard through the holidays that are very moving to us.  Some move us simply because of their association with the holiday, some move us because of our individual memories associated with them, some touch our hearts because they bring up the images and feelings associated with home and family.

Christmas hymns focused on the baby in the manger move us as we think of that young couple in a cave or sheep fold trying to make sense of why shepherds were coming to see this newborn, probably still trying to wrap their brains around what angels had told them.  And we are touched because we have held our own tiny little babies and are confounded to think of God himself taking on that soft, vulnerable, helpless form.

But for me, the most gripping of Christmas hymns are the one ones, and there aren't perhaps as many as there should be, that include both the sweet babe in the manger and the beaten, suffering man that he would grow into.  I find this verse of "What Child Is This" to be full of passion and power:

Why lies He in such mean estate
Where ox and ass are feeding?
Good Christian fear, for sinners here
The silent Word is pleading.
Nails, spear shall pierce him through,
The cross be borne for me, for you.
Hail, hail the Word made flesh,
The babe, the son of Mary.

Thank you Jesus, for coming for me, for dying for me, for pleading for me.