Away in a Manger Verse 1

Away in a manger

No crib for a bed

The little Lord Jesus

Lay down His sweet head

The stars in the sky

Look down where He lay:

The little lord Jesus, asleep on the hay. 

I have a lot of really beautiful, complex media running around in my head tonight.  I'm about an hour away from having seen The Force Awakens -- no spoilers, but overall I approve.  And I will say that it's shot and constructed much more like the original trilogy than the prequels.  But I'm leaving it there at least for a few days.

And then, of course, the musical Hamilton recently came into my life and made me nearly break down weeping in the middle of the metro rail car and keeps me thinking about it constantly.

And that's not even to mention the complexities and ultimate disappointments of Doctor Who and  Once Upon A Time's penultimate arc.

So what I want to appreciate today -- the day that I wrote up course curriculum and start to fully realize that I'm starting fresh with new students in January -- with a new cast no less...is the beauty of simplicity.

"Away in a manger" is simply that.  It is a sweet, lullaby-like song.  And what a thing to think of this message -- God made man and not even an important one, how even our finest apparel and trappings would look like a manger to this being -- as a lullaby.  A comforting thought before bed.

I get so lost in the glory and incomprehensibleness of it.  I think I forget that it was a simple act of love at its heart.  A thousand things swirl around all the best stories -- but they're worth nothing if at the heart of them is not a simple story of love.

A baby in a manger.  A man walking slowly across a bridge.  A woman with a broken sword.  A man punching three times at a barrier, knowing he won't make it.  A man's hand being covered by his estranged wife's -- tentative and scared.*

*Did I make those jumbled references obscure enough to not give anything away?

If the core is there, if it is right, the swirling mess is just noise and bonus.  We need songs that remind us of that.  Which is why movies have themes that bring us to tears just hearing them.  "Away in a Manger" is that -- the theme of Christmas.