Our Childhood’s Pattern

“For He is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew.”

“Once in Royal David’s City”
Words: Cecil F. H. Alexander, 1848
Music: Henry J. Gauntlet, “Irby,” 1849

Much of the magic of Christmas is rooted in childhood nostalgia. In fact, even as the excitement fades a little with adulthood, it is rekindled by the next generation of youngsters discovering it for the first time and revelling in the holiday spirit. That Christmas should be so tied up with childhood is appropriate: after all, it is the celebration of the Lord’s own childhood on earth. Many well-known Christmas carols make note of this fact and celebrate the innocence of it, but few do so as well or as beautifully (in my humble opinion) as “Once in Royal David’s City.” Not surprisingly, this carol first appeared in a collection of hymns for little children (in fact, it was only when it was adapted for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols that it took on its more ponderous, triumphant tone.)

Altogether the lyrics paint a picture of God Himself willingly entering into the frail human condition. Verse 4 (in the 6-verse version) particularly highlights the implications of Jesus being born as a child:

For he is our childhood’s pattern;
Day by day, like us He grew;
He was little, weak and helpless,
Tears and smiles like us He knew.
And He feeleth for our sadness,
And He shareth in our gladness.

Childhood implies the need for growth; childhood implies dependence and innocence; childhood implies both sadness and simple joy. By being born a child the Lord took on all the stages of life that we ourselves go through. We are united with Him in this very human process of growing up. As the carol says, “He is our childhood’s pattern.”

Now it would be a big enough miracle for God Himself to simply appear on earth. It is even more astonishing and miraculous that He chose to do so as a helpless infant. Here was the God of the universe, wrapped up tightly in a cloth, placed into a food trough in a stable, tenderly looked after by a young mother, Mary, and Joseph her husband. As astonishing as this miracle is though, God’s plan required this beginning. There is something that is acquired in infancy and in childhood that can be gained in no other way, something that is unique that is essential for our later lives.

The Lord did not lose those heavenly things of childhood in growing up. What would be the point of being born a child if He was only to later cast off the qualities of childhood and grow out of them? The heavenly nature of childhood becomes the basis for all the heavenly qualities that are gained as an adult. The Teachings of the New Church put it this way:

The Lord had first of all to be endowed from infancy with the heavenly things of love – the heavenly things of love are love towards Jehovah and love towards the neighbour, and the innocence itself in those loves. From these, as from the very sources of life, flows every single thing, for all other things are simply derivatives.

Secrets of Heaven §1450

The childlike innocence that the Lord retained and purified through a lifetime of work remains with Him even now. As the carol says, “For that Child so dear and gentle is our Lord in Heaven above.” Not that we are to worship the Lord as if He were still an infant, but that the fully grown Lord whom we do worship has all of the heavenly innocence of childhood within Him. He is, after all, the Man who said,

Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me.

Matthew 18:1-5