“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” ELW 276 and LBW 44
Infant holy, infant lowly,
for his bed a cattle stall;
oxen lowing, little knowing
Christ the child is Lord of all.
Swiftly winging, angels singing,
bells are ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the child is Lord of all!
Christ the child is Lord of all!
Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping
vigil till the morning new
saw the glory, heard the story,
tidings of a gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow,
praises voicing, greet the morrow:
Christ the child was born for you!
Christ the child was born for you!
Devotion
Several weeks ago, on a morning walk, I stopped to watch the sun rise brilliant and golden over the freshly harvested Minnesota fields. On my head phone radio, I think now not by accident, a college chorus sang the beautiful words of this simple Polish carol. I was moved to tears then and again now as I recall it, as the glorious sunrise and this lyric carol conspired to sneak past my defenses with the double refrain of its “tidings of a gospel true...Christ the child was born for you! Christ the child was born for you!” John’s gospel says simply and profoundly, “the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” The carol “fleshes” out that simple message and in moving lyric and image of shepherds, sheep, oxen, and a lowly infant in a cattle stall invites us to “greet the morrow” this and every day with wonder and rejoicing.
Prayer
O God of the shepherds and the cattle stall, you surprise us with the glory and the wonder that this lowly infant should be Lord of all. Grant that, wonder of wonders, I might hear with new ears the good tidings true, that this child, too, was born for me! Amen.