The carol describes the baby Jesus as he was soothed by his mother, "little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes." The cries of an infant are a call for care.
Our Savior came as a tiny child.
Russell Moore describes his first visit to the orphanage in Russia in which he first met his sons. “Of all the disturbing aspects of the orphanage in which we found our boys, one stands out above all others in its horror. It was quiet. The place was filled with an eerie silence, quieter than the Library of Congress, despite the fact that there were cribs full of babies in every room. If you listened intently enough, you could hear the sound of gently rocking - as babies rocked themselves back and forth in their beds.
They didn’t cry because no one responded to their cries. So they stopped. That’s a dehumanizing horror.”
“The first moment that I knew the boys had received us, in some strange and preliminary way, was the moment we walked out of the room for the last time on that first trip. When little Maxim, now Benjamin, fell back in his crib and cried - the first time I ever heard him do it - it was because, for whatever reason, he seemed to think he’d been heard and, for whatever reason, he no longer liked the prospect of being alone in the dark.”
The cries of our children prompt a response from us as parents. Our hearts break as we consider children who no longer cry. But God understands our pain. He hears our cries. He sent his Son for us. A tiny baby, totally dependent upon Mary and Joseph. Jesus is our Savior.
Join us this Christmas season in praying for vulnerable children.
Rejoice in the hope of our Savior, "the little Lord Jesus."
From Russell Moore, Adopted for Life: The Priority of Adoption for Christian Families and Churches (Crossway, 2009), 52
Kevin is a pastor at Faith Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware. Along with his passion for sharing the gospel through ministry, Kevin enjoys collecting stories, wandering museums, strumming on the guitar, and playing ice hockey in a recreational league. Kevin married his high school sweetheart Laura in 1999, and the Lord has given them three children: David, born 2002; Leah, born 2005; and Samuel, born 2009.