Here Between Ass & Oxen Mild

 

1. Here between ass and oxen* mild,

Sleep, sleep, sleep my little Child.

Thousand seraphim,

Thousand cherubim

Keeping watch above 

This Mighty God of Love. 

 

 

2.  Here within Mary's sweet embrace

Sleeps, sleeps, sleeps this Fruit of Grace. 

Thousand seraphim,

Thousand cherubim

Keeping watch above 

This Mighty God of Love.  

 

3. Here between rose and lily sweet**

Sleep, sleep, sleep, my Son petite.

Thousand seraphim,

Thousand cherubim

Keeping watch above 

This Mighty God of Love.

 

4.  Here between the shepherds wondering

Sleep, sleep, Jesus, newborn King.

Thousand seraphim,

Thousand cherubim

Keeping watch above 

This Mighty God of Love.  

 

  

5.  On this holy day which God chose well

Sleeps, sleeps, sleeps Emmanuel.

Thousand seraphim,

Thousand cherubim

Keeping watch above 

This Mighty God of Love.  

 

-- developed from the 13th century French carol, “Entre le bœuf et l’âne gris” ["Between the Ox & Grey Donkey"]; this version (c) C. Marie Byars, 2023

 

*The "ox and ass" portrayals go beyond assuming what might be in a stable. Medieval Roman Catholic churchmen and songwriters were adding their interpretation of Isaiah 1:3-- "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s feed trough [manger, crib], but Israel does not know; My people do not understand."

 

 A donkey may or may not have conveyed the pregnant Mary to Bethlehem. The Bible doesn't say.  An otherwise hale and hearty Mary may have walked the 90 mile journey.

 

What Child Is This   Also features ox and donkey.  

 

**The lily was a symbol of the Virgin Mary's purity.  (Though not used for old Christmas symbolism, it's a nice way to remember the story of Good Friday & Easter were already embedded into the Christmas account.)   The rose has variously been a symbol of Mary and of Jesus.  For both, it is a symbol of purity.  When used as a symbol of Jesus, it hearkens back to then Old Testament Rose of Sharon (which was actually a crocus in Hebrew, a small, early spring bulb flower!).  The Rose of Sharon was the one who pursued His beloved in the Song of Solomon.  

 

(There are various myths about winter roses and Mary's searching and struggles, also, which cropped up over the centuries.)

 

The Nativity in the photos is our own.  It is a composite of a couple different Italian sets.   We wait until closer to Epiphany (January 6) to put out the Wise Men.

For All the Saints

All Saints Day is November 1st.  It is a day to remember those who have departed the world before us and are in Christ's presence forever.  

My favorite departed saint to remember is my maternal grandmother, whose photos you will find scattered throughout.  In Lutheran thinking (following how the Bible uses the term), all Christians are "saints" because Christ has made us holy by saving us. We don't live it out perfectly (sadly, we often don't live it out well at all), but Christ is the Perfect One, the Holy One who makes us that way in God's eyes. 

For all the saints 

Who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith 

Before the world confessed;
Thy name, O Jesus, 

Be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, 

Their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain 

In the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, 

Their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, 

Fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, 

They in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, 

For all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But then there breaks 

A still more glorious day:
The saints triumphant 

Rise in bright array;
The King of Glory 

Passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth's wide bounds, 

From ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl 

Streams in the countless host,
in praise of Father, 

Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Alleluia!  --William Walsham How, 1864

W.W. How was born in 1823 in England and died in 1897 in Ireland.  He was an Anglican priest who rose to be a bishop.  

What Child Is This*

 

1. What Child is this, who, laid to rest,

In Mary's lap is sleeping?

Whom angels greet with anthems sweet

While shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King

Whom shepherd guard and angels sing.

Haste, haste to bring Him laud,

The Babe, the Son of Mary.

2.  Why lies He in such mean estate,

Where ox and ass are feeding?**

Good Christian, fear, for sinners here

The silent Word is pleading. 

Nails, spears shall pierce Him through,

The cross be borne for me, for you.

Hail, hail, the Word made Flesh,

The Babe, the Son of Mary.

So bring Him incense, gold and myrrh***

Come, peasant, king*** to own Him.

The King of Kings salvation brings,

Let loving hearts enthrone Him.

Raise, raise the song on high,

The virgin sings her lullaby.

Joy, joy, for Christ is born,

The Babe, the Son of Mary.

--William Chatterton Dix, 1865

*usually sung to the English folk tune "Greensleeves"

**It's not known for sure what animals were present at Jesus' birth.  The Luke 2 account says He was laid in a manger, so people assume He was born in a stable where other animals were present.  Some people feel Mary rode a donkey down from Bethlehem to Nazareth, though the Bible doesn't say this either.  Still, these animals make it into much of the religious art and into Nativity scenes.  

***It seems the Magi (sometimes called "Wise Men") came later. They have sometimes been referred to as "kings", though they were not really rulers.  [Psalm 72 has similar thoughts and refers to "kings", though.]  This, as Christ's birth itself, shows the low & high of society worshipping HIm. 

Before the Paling of the Stars

 

Before the paling of the stars,
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.

Jesus on his mother’s breast
In the stable cold,
Spotless lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph laudatory*,
With saint and angel, ox and ass,
To hail the King of Glory.
--Christina Rosetti, 1912

*In the original poem, "bent and hoary", with the idea that Joseph was older, and this was his second marriage, coming out of the extra-Biblical idea that Mary was always a Virgin and never had biological children. Christians who hold this view, namely Roman Catholics and some Anglicans, interpret New Testament references of Jesus' brothers and sisters as being half-sisters from a possible 1st marriage of Joseph.  There is no actual Biblical data to support this.  Rosetti was a "High Church Anglican"

More Sledding... More on Seasons

December 2019 just south of Pine, AZ  (north of Payson)

Yes, Arizona!!!

 

After the flood, God told Noah:

"Through all the days of the earth,
Seedtime and Harvest,
Cold and Heat,
Summer and Winter.
Day and Night
Will not take rest 
[cease, pause, have a 'Sabbath'.] "
  
  ---Genesis 8:22; original translation

This is but one of our seasons as we move through time.

Past Sledding Post 

Refreshing Rivers

These pictures are from the White River, a tributary to the Salt River in Arizona. The Salt River and another tributary, the Black River, form the boundary between two Apache Indian tribes in Arizona.

Scarlet Petnstemmon

A Grand Canyon

A spot where you can drive down to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.  Not quite as "splendid" as in the National Park, but still beautiful.

At the confluence of Diamond Creek & the Colorado River, May 2019. 

Sledding

2006, Northern Arizona

2012, East of Albuquerque

2017, Yellowstone

Snowcoaching

Jan, 2019 near Grand Canyon

Feb, 2019 N. AZ

Sledding in summer clothes?  Fooled you.

2009, White Sands, NM

North Rim Grand Canyon

[July 2017 vacation]

Some things are poetry without words!

Angel's Window, on of the few places to see the Colorado River from the North Rim.  

(Look closely through the window on the close-up.)

There is also the escaped buffalo herd from a failed cattle-buffalo crossing experiment over 100 years ago.  (They have some cattle DNA.)

October 2010 South Rim Visit

"In His hand are the depths of the earth;

The peaks of the mountains are His also." (Psalm 95:4)

"...He who was seated on the throne said,

'See, I am making all things new...

  To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.'

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning,

nor crying, nor pain anymore,

for the former things have passed away.”

(Revelation 21:5,6b,4)

More Backyard Blooms

GIANT Maroon & Yellow Sunflower

Over 6' Tall

Watermelon Blossoms

Intertwined with Squash and Loofa Vines

California Poppies

May Magnificat*

(Happy Mother's Day!)**

May is Mary's month, and I
Muse at that and wonder why:
Her feasts follow reason,
Dated due to season—

Flesh and fleece, fur and feather,
Grass and greenworld all together;
Star-eyed strawberry-breasted
Throstle above bird nested

Cluster of bugle blue eggs thin
Forms and warms the life within;
And bird and blossom swell
In sod or sheath or shell.

All things rising, all things sizing
Mary saw, sympathising
With that world of good,
Nature's motherhood.

Their magnifying of each its kind
With delight calls to mind
How she did in her stored
Magnify the Lord.

Well but there was more than this:
Spring's universal bliss
Much, had much to say
To offering Mary May.

When drop-of-blood-and-foam-dapple
Bloom lights the orchard-apple
And thicket and thorp are merry
With silver-surfed cherry

And azuring-over greybell makes
Wood banks and brakes wash wet like lakes
And magic cuckoocall
Caps, clears, and clinches all—

This ecstasy all through mothering earth
Tells Mary her mirth till Christ's birth
To remember and exultation
In God who was her salvation.       

---Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1878

[edited for prominent Roman Catholic Marian theology; cmb, 2013]

*Mary's song during her pregnancy with Christ:  "My soul magnifies the Lord..."
**Rose & Blue are traditionally "Mary's colors."  Blue for faithfulness & Rose for femininity, motherhood & the color of the fresh, pure rose.

Grand Canyon

The Dirty Floor

[This is technically an analogy. Like all, it has its limitations.]

Somtimes people ask me, "Why do you consider Christianity so special or unique? After all, most of the world's great religions have fine moral codes." (Of course, these people are either not Christians at all or very loose or lapsed in their relationship to Him.) So I agree with them that that is true, but the primary thing about Christianity is not the fine moral code.

I give them this to think on:"When you were very young and tracked dirt in on the nice, clean kitchen floor, how did your mom react? Did she say, 'That's okay, honey, I love you so much that I'll ignore the dirt. We'll all just get along fine ignoring it.'???" Of course not!" [No one's ever said "Yes" to this---what a dump you'd live in if your mom were like that.] "

"And your mom knew you couldn't clean up the mess on your own. So, what did your mom do? She rolled up her sleeves* and cleaned up your mess on her own.""That's how it is with God and sin. God can even less stand to live with the dirt of sinfulness than your mom could with that dirty floor. [Old Testament: 'unclean' was how they often expressed sin or sinfulness.] God is so holy He can't even stand one speck of dirt in His presence---not the tiniest thing. And we're not capable of cleaning our mess up, either. So, God 'rolled up His sleeves'*, became one of us (Jesus Christ) and cleaned up that mess (dying on the cross to pay back Himself for the cost of our sins). "If you grasp this idea first, then nature really properly can become a teaching tool for you. Because then you will know what is real, and you can relate what you take in with your senses back to the truth of Jesus Christ.

*"[Yahweh] saw that there was no one. . . to intercede; so His own arm worked salvation for Him." (Isaiah 60:16)