The weekend before Thanksgiving, I went to a home tour organized by my sweet friend, Jill; a fundraiser for her daughter's choir. In one of the homes we were treated to a performance by the high school's chamber choir. The bright, attractive group was the usual suburban-Dallas mix of mostly European-American and Asian-American faces.
The first song they sang was one you don't hear much, "Some Children See Him." Here are excerpts of the words by Wihla Hudson and Alfred S. Burt:
"Some children see Him lily white,
the baby Jesus born this night.
Some children see Him lily white,
with tresses soft and fair......
Some children see Him bronzed and brown.....
Him dark as they,
sweet Mary's Son to whom we pray.
Some children see him dark as they,
and, ah! they love Him, too! "
It's said this song, written in 1951, was intended to spread peace and brotherly Christian unity in the aftermath of WWII.
I couldn't help but wonder if the director knew how he would pull heart-strings by assigning the group's sole African-American student to sing the lead solo. I am sure it was mostly the young gentleman's beautiful voice, but still! A beautiful and evocative moment.
I was put in mind of the hundreds of different representations of Jesus I've seen in art around the world and created in times from the Middle Ages to the present. I love visiting art museums and for many years I've pondered pale Jesus and Mary dressed in 17th-century Italian robes, Asian Jesus, and yes, black Jesus and blonde Jesus. It bothered me for a long while! Don't people know Jesus was a Jew from the Middle East? I wondered.
I came to realize two things.... In many cases such as 17th-century Europe, the artists probably didn't have much knowledge about ethnicity or dress in Jesus' time and place. Second and what's truly important, the art is an expression of the beautiful concept of Advent. Emmanuel is coming. God With Us. The God who is like us.
Seeing these different portraits is one of my favorite things about an art museum. And the words from 1951 are so beautiful and so worth pondering today.....
"The children in each different place
will see the baby Jesus' face
like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace,
and filled with holy light.
O lay aside each earthly thing
and with thy heart as offering,
come worship now the infant King.
'Tis love that's born tonight!"
