A song for this eve…
I was 11 years old and living in a boarding school. This was an Episcopal School overseen by deaconesses(like nuns) and priests from the Diocese of Virginia.
New to the school, his name was David. We all understood he was extremely homesick. Something I knew a lot about from my own experience when I arrived three years before.
In an effort to create a sense of belonging and comfort, I was asked to go into David ‘s room after he was in bed, sit at the foot of his bed and sing ‘What Child is This ’, a traditional Christmas song set to the tune of Greensleeves.
His mother would sing this to him every night and the Deaconess hoped that it would help him calm and settle.
“What Child is this who lay to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping
This, this is Christ the King, the babe the child of Mary”
Most nights he would drift off to sleep and I would quietly roll out of the room.
I was young but I knew I was doing something important.
Now… years later, I sit behind an altar on Christmas Eve leading people in prayer and song as we celebrate the birth of Christ.
The hymn begins- “What child is this…” and I remember- David. With his image before me, I pray for all children searching for home this night.
May they be blessed with sleep under a blanket of comfort and peace.
Image - taken from Pinterest