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334 - Jesus Child, Where Are You? |
Jesus Child, Where Are You?
Jesus Child, where are you? I see you are not there;
Ox and ass alone surround a manger that is bare.
I see your mother, Mary, and Joseph hand in hand,
I see the stalwart wisemen come from a foreign land.
And yet, I cannot find you: Where are you, Jesus Child?
"I'm in the hearts of poor folk, the wanton, the beguiled."Mary is most anxious, you do not heed her call;
Questioning the innkeeper, she searches in the stall.
Outside Joseph beckons you and combs the dark terrain.
The wisemen fear your safety; their faces show the strain.
Now everyone is calling: Where are you, Jesus Child?
"I'm in the hearts of sick folk, ev'n lonely souls turned wild."The wisemen have departed to eastern lands afar,
the shepherds on the hillside no longer see the star.
The night is cold and dreary-and vanished is the light,
and humankind is sighing: No Savior came that night.
Still wondering they question: Where are you, Jesus Child?
"I'm in the hearts of heathen with hope that's undefiled."
S T Kimbrough, Jr. has most recently been a member of the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, New Jersey. An Old Testament scholar, he is author of Israelite Religion in Sociological Perspective (1978) and six other books. He has taught on theological faculties in the U.S.A. and abroad. Kimbrough is also an expert on Wesleyan hymnody.
This poem, after Jean Anouihl, is translated
by Dr. Kimbrough.