This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
Jesus, little baby
Jesus, little baby
Jesus, little baby in a stall,
Jesus, wrapped in cloths and still so small:
we believe in you,
we acclaim you as our Lord.
Jesus, "Son of David" in a shed,
Jesus, sleeping in a manger-bed:
we believe in you,
we acknowledge you the Son of God above.
In nature God, you made yourself small,
so now your name is far above all:
and at the name of Jesus
ev'ry knee shall bow down.
Your humble birth prefigured the cross,
where you would die to pay for our loss:
so ev'ry tongue shall own
that Jesus Christ is Lord of all,
Jesus Christ is Lord of all.
Jesus, angels worshipped at your birth,
Jesus, Son of God yet born on earth,
we believe in you,
we acclaim you as our Lord.
Jesus, shepherds saw you where you laid,
Jesus, God in human form displayed,
we believe in you,
we acknowledge you the Son of God above.
In nature God ...
Words and music copyright © John Hartley 2006.
Story behind the song
I started thinking about a song along these lines when a member of the COIN (Christians on the Internet) e-mail music discussion list put up a request for a "creed" song which could go in a Christmas service. At least, that wasn't exactly what he asked for, but that's the way I first read his request. So here is one. In the verses it imagines drawing near to Jesus as a little newborn baby, using the language of Luke 2:1-20, and in the chorus it uses the thoughts of Philippians 2:5-11 to affirm belief in the one who humbled himself in such an amazing way, and whom God therefore exalted to the highest position possible.
I'd like to thank friends from Christian Songwriting Organisation for critiques on the first draft of this song: Orlando, Michael Lehr and Dave Davis made comments about it and I think they have helped me improve the song by removing some of the "schmaltz", reordering some of the unnatural word-order, and correcting the theology a little.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.