Sunbonnet Soliloquy

By Jewell Ellen Smith

Bring Your Heart to Bethlehem

There is an ancient legend which says that at midnight on Christmas Eve all beasts and birds--even the bugs--can speak like human beings. And, that they all wake and bow down on their knees to worship the Christ Child. Bees rouse up from their slumber and buzz a carol for the Holy Babe.

This ability to speak and sing, so the legend has it, dates back to that first Holy Night, when the Christ Child was born in the Bethlehem stable, and the animals there announces His birth.

“Christ is born!” crowed the Cock. “When?” the Raven asked.

“This night!” the Crow replied.

“Where? Where?” the Ox cried out. “In Bethlehem! In Bethlehem! In lowly Bethlehem!” bleated the Sheep. “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”

And angels’ voices from Heaven sang: “Glory Be On High!”

The true Biblical story tells how on that Holy Night in Bethlehem a band of angels appeared to shepherds out in the fields and told them the glad tidings. The angels used these joyous words:

Unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.. Ye shall find the Babe wrapped in swadling clothes and lying in a manger.

The jubilant shepherds left their sheep, they left their lambs, and they went with haste to Bethlehem. There they found Mary and Joseph and the Babe in the manger. And they told Mary and Joseph and everybody else they saw how God had revealed the coming of the Messiah to them.

Later, wise men from the East, who said they were following a star, arrived in Bethlehem and came to worship the Holy Child. They bowed themselves down to the ground and presented to Him precious gifts--gold and frankincense and myrrh.

With the old legend and the true story in mind, I recently tried my hand at writing a little musical play for children. It has three carols--one for the animals in the stable to sing, one for a cherub choir, and the third for the entire cast of Mary and Joseph, and the angels, and the shepherds, and the wise men.

I offer you the words of the third one. Please consider it an invitation to go with me to Bethlehem, on Christmas Eve:

“Come, O come to Bethlehem,

With singing and great joy!

Come adore the Child divine,

The sweet Lit’le Jesus Boy.

Kneeling in his stable low,

You’ll see both man and beast,

Humble shepherds from the field

And Wise Men from the East.

Gifts of gold and precious things

They’ve brought to honor Him,

Holy Lit’le Jesus Boy,

Who’s born in Bethlehem.

You may wonder what to bring

Lit’le Jesus Boy so fair.

Bring your heart to Bethlehem,

And give it to Him there.

Bring your heart to Bethlehem.

Bring your heart, bring your heart.

Bring your heart to Bethlehem!”

Published December 1982. Click your browser’s “Back” button to return.