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2020-02-26 to 28 Pictures: Charleston, South Carolina

One of the few upsides of having to cancel our Spring Break trip last March at the onset of the pandemic is that we are "stuck" with a rather large voucher from one of those discount airlines. Last autumn, Tricia and I spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia and had a...

A John 3:16 Craft for Kids

John 3:16 is one of the most well known and reassuring verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.John 3:16 (NIV) The following is a little craft I threw...

2020-03-01 Pictures: Lyndsey’s College Signing Day

This afternoon Lyndsey made it official, signing her letter of intent to play college basketball for the Hiram College Terriers starting next year. While she made the decision and committed to Hiram before Christmas, she has been looking forward to this day since her...

2020-02-13 Pictures: Lyndsey’s 18th Birthday

I am little behind on posting photos. These are some of my favorites from a couple of weekends ago when we got a chance to celebrate Lyndsey's 18th birthday. It's hard to believe that my little girl is officially an adult. It was nice to have the family all back...

What is DOCTRINE?

Introduction I love working with kids, and I love teaching them hard concepts in ways they can understand. To that end, for years I have been working on a dictionary of theological terms for kids and teens. In sharing those definitions, there seemed no better place to...

If You Want It Done Right

In all likelihood, you know how the phrase ends: If you want it done right, DO IT YOURSELF! This is a bit of a mantra for me, and frankly, something that I struggle with daily both in leadership and in my Christian walk.  In theory, this is easy to accept. ...

What Does God Hate?

This is the little and humble post that started it all. I happened to be reading through my Bible, and this passage impacted me so much that I posted a little blurb about it on Facebook. That was July 28, 2008, and I've been writing and sharing ever since. (Maybe...

This Baby (December 19)

Dec19To view the entire 2011 Christmas Carol Advent check out our Christmas Carol Advent index page.

Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCsud5X3A54

Story Behind the Song

This Baby is from Steven Curtis Chapman’s Christmas Is All In The Heart album released in 2003.

Commentary & Analysis

As opposed to yesterday’s song, Away in a Manger, this song starts with a more appropriate view of Jesus as a baby – “Well, He cried when He was hungry,Did all the things that babies do.”  Jesus was fully God and fully human, and despite the fact that the bible does not explicitly tell us about his infancy, it is likely that he cried, rocked, napped, wiggled, giggled and cooed as this song proclaims.  I particularly like the juxtaposition of his humanness (“seemed as natural as it could be”) and his nature as God that made the angels sing, made a new star and change the world.

The chorus of this song is a rundown of several of the attributes of Jesus.

  • The angels announced his birth. (Luke 2:8-21)
  • A new star shined at his birth. (Matthew 2:1-12)
  • He came to change the world. (Luke 19:10)
  • He was God’s Son.  (John 3:16)
  • He was like no human who ever lived. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
  • He was God with us. (Matthew 1:23)

In much the same way that the first verse dealt with the humanness of Jesus as a baby, the second verse deals with his humanness as an adolescent.  Like a normal boy, he had to learn to read and write.  He likely loved to spend time with his human dad Joseph.  He learned a trade.  He grew taller.  His body changed, and he went through the normal growth pattern.  The final line of the verse indicates “And all the neighbors said He’s such a fine boy” which is likely a reference to Luke 2:52:

And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.  [Luke 2:52 ESV]

In the final verse, this songs looks at several of the things recorded in the Bible which Jesus did as a man including crying a death and revealing heaven in human form.

Questions for further Reflection / Devotion

The following questions are meant for your reflection and or devotion.  Feel free to meditate on them, discuss them with your family or others or post your responses here.  I would love to hear from you.

  1. How do you reconcile in your own mind that Jesus was fully human and fully God?  What does it mean to you?
  2. Why do you think God chose to come as a baby and live through adolescence and early adulthood before he began his ministry?
  3. Mary knew that Jesus was the Son of God.  How do you think she must have felt raising the Son of God?
  4. Do you find it easier to accept the fact that Jesus was fully human or fully God?
  5. Take some time to talk to your family about what it means that God was fully human and experienced many of things they experience as kids and young adults.

Lyrics

Well, He cried when He was hungry,
Did all the things that babies do;
He rocked and He napped on His mother’s lap,
And He wiggled and giggled and cooed.
There were the cheers when He took His first step,
And the tears when He got His first teeth;
Almost everything about this little baby
Seemed as natural as it could be.

CHORUS

But this baby made the angels sing,
And this baby made a new star shine in the sky.
This baby had come to change the world.
This baby was God’s own son, this baby was like no other one.
This baby was God with us, this baby was Jesus.

And this baby grew into a young boy,
Who learned to read and write and wrestle with dad;
There was the climbin’ of trees and the scrapin’ of knees,
And all the fun that a boy’s born to have.
He grew taller and some things started changing,
Like His complexion and the sound of His voice;
There was work to be done as a carpenter’s son
And all the neighbors said He’s such a fine boy.

CHORUS

But this boy made the angels sing,
And this boy made a new star shine in the sky.
This boy had come to change the world.
This boy was God’s own son, this boy was like no other one.
This boy was God with us. This boy became a man,

And love made Him laugh and death made Him cry.
With the life that He lived and the death that He died,
He showed us heaven with His hands and His heart,
‘Cause this man was God’s own son.
This man was like no other one,
Holy and human right from the start.

CHORUS

This baby was God with us, this baby,
this baby was Jesus;
this baby was Jesus,
this baby was Jesus.

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