The Virgin Sings a Lullaby

“The Virgin sings a lullaby.” I was recently struck by this stanza while listening to the popular Christmas carol What Child is this? The words on their own are straightforward but the truth they pack is anything but! Here we find the virgin birth and the staggering reality of the incarnation. I see a young virgin girl, suddenly the mother of a baby. A baby full of glory. A baby full of grace and full of truth. (John 1:14). A baby who is “the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God” (Nicene Creed). A baby who is in fact the Word made flesh. To this baby, the Virgin sings a lullaby.

And there lies the mystery of what of the J.I. Packer calls the great act of condescension and self-humbling. In the incarnation, the very God of very God is sang a lullaby. What condescension! Imagine a dependent infant, needing to be soothed, and cuddled and rocked to sleep. This is Christ the King “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing.” (Philippians 2:6). A baby without speech, helpless to lie where placed; staring; cooing; fidgeting. What humility! “Our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9). The One in which all things were created (Colossians 1:16) became Mary’s baby boy, looking to his young mother for his food, his changing and his care. What obedience to the Father! An obedience that continued from the manger to the cross. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

This great act of condescension and self-humbling was from birth to death. The helpless baby grew and lived a sinless life and suffered a humiliating death. And this pleased the Father. “It pleased the LORD to crush him and put him to grief … he was crushed for our iniquities; the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him (Isaiah 53:5-10). He was crushed that I might be raised up. He was made poor that I might be made rich. He took on sin that I might be clothed in His righteousness. He descended that I might ascend one day in him to partake in His exaltation and His glory (Philippians 2:9-11). And this too pleased the Father.

I remember the incarnation and sing. Not songs of lullabies, but songs of adoration to the One who saves. So come let us adore Him ... the Babe, the Son of Mary!