A Hymn on the Nativity
Behold the Virgin’s newborn son,
Now in a lowly manger laid--
This tiny babe the very one
By whom the starry host were made.
With splendor was He robed on high;
The heavens obeyed His commands--
Yet now, how helpless doth He lie,
While meanly clothed in swaddling bands!
The humble shepherds worship Him
And on this wondrous Child do gaze,
Whom once did all the cherubim
Exalt with loud, majestic lays.
Why did He leave His throne above,
Among the poor and meek to dwell?
He came, impelled by boundless love,
The dreadful pow’r of death to quell.
O Lord, we too would worship Thee,
The King of Kings, the Great I AM--
Who came from sin to set us free--
All praise to Thee, our Paschal Lamb!
Sonnet on the Nativity (2017 Version)
All hail Immanuel, who once didst reign
In matchless splendor at the Father's side--
The great Creator of the wind and tide--
Exalted in the angels' joyous strain!
Yet how can it be, Lord, that Thou shouldst deign
Thy glory in a mortal frame to hide?
Why dost Thou with the lowing ox abide--
Thy royal bed a manger, rough and plain?
'Twas Love, which did Thee, gracious King, impel
With feeble flesh to veil Thy Deity,
In lowly birth to come, on earth to dwell,
That Thou the spotless Lamb of God might be.
Oh, teach us, then, our selfish thoughts to quell
That we, O Holy One, might love like Thee!
Image: The Adoration of the Shepherds by Giovanni Domenico Tieopolo, from Wikimedia Commons