Songs Of Hope - Sing We Now Of ChristmasExemplo

What Child is This?

Wonder. Amazement. Reverence. This song evokes all these emotions in me. The music is almost mournful, yet filled with so much hope. William Chatterton Dix, the author of What Child is This, was a businessman when this song was published in 1865. The song was derived from a longer poem entitled, The Manger Song, and set to the tune of Greensleeves, a familiar tune of the time.

For all of the years I have heard and sung this song, the third stanza was unfamiliar to me:

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.

It’s amazing how we can sing of the wondrous event of Jesus’ birth and still look ahead to the cross. But we do. The story of God becoming a man is incomplete without looking forward to the cross and resurrection of Jesus. I need that reminder, especially at Christmas. It’s so easy for me to be swept up in the “sweet” picture of the nativity scene and not remember why Jesus came. Me. You. My sin. Your sin. He came to pay the price on our behalf. And now I’m back to wonder, amazement, and reverence! In light of this, I think I’ll be singing this last stanza a little more loudly and joyfully this year:

Raise, raise a song on high,
The virgin sings her lullaby.
Joy, joy for Christ is born,
The Babe, the Son of Mary.

Mary Catherine Carnes
Resident Director, Burt Hall
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor