Prayer to the Christ Child...

Little Jesus, was Thou shy
Once, and just so small as I?
And what did it feel like to be
Out of Heaven, and just like me?
Didst Thou sometimes think of there,
And ask where all the angels were?

Go to Hound of Heaven Blog has the whole poem...
I didn't know that it was written by Francis Thompson, who also wrote the poem Hound of Heaven...)

Catholic devotion to the Child Jesus reminds us that God came as a little helpless child, and that when we too are helpless and small, we can identify with him, and He with us...
My two previous posts on Christmas had the same theme, because in these days when abortion, financial exploitation of embryos, and infanticide of newborns is legal in many places, it is important to remember that God himself was "once a child like me"...

In the Philippines, they have a devotion to the Holy Child...LINK....

In the USA, they usually use the Infant of Prague, where the Child is shown as a king...
But in Spanish countries, the child is dressed like a shepherd lad, with a big hat and a staff...

The Spanish legend behind it is that the Christ child, dressed as a shepherd, rescued some Spaniards from a Muslim jail...

And so the Mexican American silver miners in New Mexico often pray to the Christ child for safety... "Many New Mexican survivors of the Bataan Death March attribute their survival to the intercession of the Santo Niño de Atocha. He is a patron of travelers, prisoners, and the ill and crippled. "

And, of course, the EL NINO weather phenomenum is named after the Christ Child
because it occurs in December...(although the US press, being politically correct, often merely translated it as "the boy" ...)

Here in the Philippines, Christ and Mary etc. are not high up in the sky, distant from your cares and worries, but like members of your family...Kuya Jesus and Mama Mary are the way many Philipinos refer to Jesus and Mary...

So I was amused but not surprised when we went to the Florist, and saw the statue of El Nino which had been dressed in denim shorts and tee shirt like a Filippino child, and draped with flower necklaces...

And a happy birthday to you, Baby Jesus...