In anticipation of Christmas this week, today's song is Once within a Lowly Stable by Patty Smith Hill and Mildred Hill from the Children's Songbook. As in many songs, finding a one syllable plural word for "God" is hard, so I rewrote the line, "God sent us this loving baby" to "Heav'nly Parents sent this baby." Other options I considered were, "Father, Mother, sent this baby," "Mother, Father, sent this baby," and "God and Goddess sent this baby." Each of those follow the meter well. "Goddess and God..." didn't fit well at all.
Once within a Lowly Stable
Once within a lowly stable,
Where the sheep and oxen lay,
A loving mother laid her baby
In a manger filled with hay.
Mary was the mother there,
And the Christ that baby fair.
Heav'nly Parents sent this baby
From his home in heav'n above,
And he came down to show all people
How to help and how to love.
This is why the angels bright
Sang for joy that Christmas night.
Happy Christmas and Happy Sunday all!
1 comment:
I agree the Heavenly Parents works best for this song (based on reading it) as a convert who hasn't spent much time serving in the nursery, I don't actually know this song.
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