Lully, lullay, Thou little tiny Child,- Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
- Lullay, thou little tiny Child,
- Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
- O sisters too, how may we do,
- For to preserve this day
- This poor youngling for whom we do sing
- Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
- Herod, the king, in his raging,
- Charged he hath this day
- His men of might, in his owne sight,
- All young children to slay.
- That woe is me, poor Child for Thee!
- And ever mourn and sigh,
- For thy parting neither say nor sing,
- Bye, bye, lully, lullay.
- Christmas isn’t for the fainthearted. Today is the feast of St. Stephen, the first martyr. On the 28th is the feast of the Holy Innocents. Sweet baby Jesus in the manger is all well and good, but we live in a world that has not changed much in two thousand years. A world in which things happen like Stephen’s martyrdom by stoning, and the death of innocent children as collateral damage from politics. God didn’t become flesh in order to keep his followers from experiencing tragedy. God became flesh in Jesus to prove that even death and evil and tragedy don’t get the last word. Emmanuel, God-with-us is for the very situations of Stephen, or the Innocents, or even us.
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