Jesus, “Our Childhood’s Pattern”

Share Now

World War I ended at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918. On Christmas Eve, 1918, King’s College of Cambridge University in Cambridge, England, held a concert entitled, A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. Its purpose was to offer comfort to those who were distressed, exhausted, or injured and to those who were in mourning after losing loved ones. King’s College continues this tradition today.

Last year the service was virtual. However, this year King’s College has opened the concert to a reduced number of guests. The College has already conducted a ballot for the many people who applied to attend the concert in person. Applicants are to find out on Thursday if they were chosen.

Except in 1930, the BBC has broadcast the service on the radio. This year it plans to broadcast the service on Christmas Eve and again on Christmas Day. Americans can listen to the service on around 450 radio stations. Among these are Minnesota Public Radio and WQXR in New York. Check local stations in your area if you are interested.

The first carol in A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols is “Once in Royal David’s City.” Irish minister’s wife, Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander, wrote the carol in 1848. I love how she takes children on a journey through the life of Jesus—in the manger, in His mother’s arms, and in the home where He grew up. She then fills their imaginations with the someday when He will gather them to Himself.

I have shared the words of this carol with Daily Encouragement readers time and again since 2013. Here they are again:

Once in royal David’s city
Stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby
In a manger for His bed;
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little Child.

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And His shelter was a stable
And His cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Saviour holy.

And through all His wondrous childhood,
He would honor and obey,
Love, and watch the lowly maiden
In whose gentle arms He lay;
Christian children all must be
Mild, obedient, good as He.

For He is our childhood’s pattern,
Day by day like us He grew;
He was little, weak, and helpless,
Tears and smiles, like us He knew;
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

And our eyes at last shall see Him
Through His own redeeming love;
For that Child, so dear and gentle,
Is our Lord in heaven above;
And He leads His children on
To the place where He is gone.

Not in that poor lowly stable,
With the oxen standing by,
We shall see Him, but in heaven,
Set at God’s right hand on high;
When like stars His children rise
Singing praises in the skies.

Our children can’t be perfect like Jesus was, but I do like for them to be able to imagine what His childhood was like and to know that He is their perfect example.

And He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and He continued to be subject to them;
and His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature,
and in favor with God and people.
Luke 2:51-52

I like for them to know that He knows and cares about every little thing (and big thing) that they know and care about.

The carol has a few words that are unfamiliar to children now. One time when I sang it with children, I began to explain the meaning of the word mean. However, it wasn’t mean that our then-three-year-old grandson was confused about. It was lowly. When he heard this verse, he thought of Richard Scarry’s character, Lowly Worm.

Mrs. Alexander had a beautiful way of expressing the most important things, but language and meaning and perceptions change with age, with time, and with changes in culture and language. Sometimes we think we are communicating one thing but our listener is taking in something very different.

Throughout the Old Testament, God communicated in various ways; but when the time was exactly right, He came Himself to show and tell us exactly what we need to know.

But when the fullness of the time came,
God sent forth His Son,
born of a woman, born under the Law,
so that He might redeem those who were under the Law,
that we might receive the adoption as sons.
Galatians 4:4

It is our job as parents to follow that “Child so dear and gentle” who “is our Lord in heaven above . . . ,” thereby guiding “our children on to the place where He is gone.”

If I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you to Myself,
that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14:3

Share Now