This tender Christmas hymn is sung by Mary to her newborn baby, as he slumbers in her arms. It’s a powerful reminder that Jesus, savior of the world, was first of all Mary’s “dear little boy.” Mary would nurse him at her breast, change his nappies, sing him to sleep, give him his first solid food, clothe him as best she could, watch him take his first steps and speak his first words. Oh, Mary, when you sing “one day we shall see/ what love has destined for you and for me,” I already feel my tears start to flow. Oh, Mary, you are going to have as hard a life as any mother anywhere. Oh, Mary!
The words of this song also speak to me as someone who is a mother myself, and someone who (like all of us) had a mother. I held my own two dear little boys, rocking them, calming them, wondering what the future would bring for them and me. My mother held her own two little girls, rocking, calming, wondering. Jesus was Mary’s precious child, and God’s precious child, a baby uniquely destined to save the world. But all children are precious – precious to the human parents who love them, and precious to God. As Mary has her own hopes and fears for her sweet son, we need to remember the hopes and fears of parents everywhere for their beloved little ones.
This Advent, this Christmas, let us hold in our hearts the preciousness of vulnerable children everywhere.
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