Away in a Manger
Away in a Manger is a hymn text. Found in CW21 340, CW93 68, ELH 119, elw 277.
Hymnal Appearances
- Christian Worship: Hymnal — 340
- Christian Worship — 68
- Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary — 119
- Evangelical Lutheran Worship — 277
- Lutheran Book of Worship — 67
- Lutheran Service Book — 364
- Lutheran Worship — 64
- With One Voice — 644
In the Church Year
Suggested in the three-year series
- Christmas Midnight (3×)
- Christmas Eve (1×)
From LCMS Worship's published hymn suggestions, 2014–2026. The count is how many of those yearly lists suggested this hymn for that day.
Overview
The best-known children's carol in English, and one that repays more care than it usually gets. Two stanzas picture the baby in the manger and a child's bedtime love for him; a third, added a few years later, turns the picture into prayer: be near me, stay with me, bless the children, take us to heaven. The carol's strength is that prayer. Its weakness is sentiment, and one line, the baby who does not cry, has to be handled so that it does not suggest a Jesus who was less than a real infant. Taught well, it gives a child a first evening prayer addressed to the Lord Jesus by name.
Central theme: A child's prayer to the Lord Jesus, who lay in the manger and now keeps his children to eternal life
Structure
Three stanzas of 11 11 11 11. St. 1: the manger scene; st. 2: the waking baby, then the turn to direct address and the first petition; st. 3: petitions for nearness, love, blessing of all children, and heaven.
Law & Gospel Shape
Almost wholly Gospel and prayer. No Law is spoken; need is implied in the child's requests to be watched through the night and brought to heaven.
Confessional Connections
Three points for teaching. (1) 'The little Lord Jesus': the infant is called Lord, the personal union in a child's vocabulary (AC III). (2) 'No crying He makes' must not become docetism. Christ was made like his brothers in every respect, yet without sin (Heb 2:17; 4:15; FC SD VIII), and infants cry without sinning. The line describes a moment, not a nature, and is best explained that way. (3) 'Look down from the sky' and 'stay by my cradle' belong together: the ascended Lord is not absent but present with his own according to his promise (Matt 28:20; FC SD VIII on Christ's presence). The last line's 'take us to heaven' asks for what the Second Article's explanation promises, life with him in his kingdom. The carol does not mention sin, the cross or Baptism, so it cannot stand alone as a child's Christmas theology.
Liturgical Use (Study Notes)
Children's Christmas services; Christmas Eve; home and bedtime devotion; Sunday school. St. 3 serves as a child's evening prayer all year.
Historical Notes
Not by Luther, despite the long-lived title 'Luther's Cradle Hymn'. That claim first appears with the 1885 Philadelphia printing and seems to have arisen around the 400th anniversary of Luther's birth (1883); no German original exists. The third stanza first appears in Charles Gabriel's Vineyard Songs (1892).
About the Tune
AWAY IN A MANGER (James R. Murray, 1887), also called MUELLER. CRADLE SONG (Kirkpatrick) is the usual British tune.
Scripture References
Luke 2:7, 12 Matt 8:20 Mark 10:13-16 Matt 28:20 Ps 4:8 John 14:2-3 Heb 2:14, 17 Ps 121:3-4
Stanza by Stanza
Far away in a manger, with no proper cot for a bed, the little Lord Jesus laid down his head. The stars looked down on him as he slept on the hay.
The stanza is Luke 2:7 seen by a child: a baby with no bed of his own. The detail the carol notices, 'no crib', is the beginning of the poverty Jesus later described when he said the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. The title is the theology. He is 'the little Lord Jesus', small and Lord at once, and the carol will use that name in every stanza. The stars looking down reverse the usual order, in which people look up at the heavens: here creation gazes at its Maker lying in straw. For a child the lesson is simple and true. God's Son became as small as you, and smaller than most, since he had not even a bed.
- Scripture
- Luke 2:7, Luke 2:12, Matt 8:20, 2 Cor 8:9, John 1:3
- Imagery & language
- Manger and hay; stars as watchers; a sleeping infant.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel: the Lord made himself little and poor.
- Connection to previous
- Opening scene.
The cattle low and the baby wakes, but the little Lord Jesus does not cry. I love you, Lord Jesus. Look down from heaven and stay by my bed until morning comes.
The first half is the line that needs a teacher. A baby who wakes to noise and stays quiet is a picture of peace, and no more should be built on it; Jesus wept as a man and surely cried as an infant, because he took a true human nature with its hunger and needs. Then the carol changes voice. The child stops describing and speaks to him: 'I love Thee, Lord Jesus'. From here on it is prayer. The first request is for the night, that he would look down and stay by the bedside until morning. The baby who was watched over by the stars is asked to be the watcher, which only makes sense if the infant of the manger is now the Lord in heaven who neither slumbers nor sleeps.
- Scripture
- Luke 2:7, Heb 2:17, Heb 4:15, Ps 4:8, Ps 121:3-4, 1 John 4:19
- Imagery & language
- Lowing cattle; a waking child; a bedside vigil till morning.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel: the Lord Jesus can be prayed to and trusted through the night.
- Connection to previous
- Turns from picture to prayer, from 'He' to 'Thee'.
Be near me, Lord Jesus. Stay close to me always and love me. Bless all the dear children in your tender care, and take us to heaven to live with you there.
Four petitions, each resting on a promise. 'Be near me… forever' asks for what he pledged, 'I am with you always'. 'Love me' asks for what he has already shown. 'Bless all the dear children' recalls the day he took children in his arms and blessed them, rebuking those who would keep them away; the praying child looks beyond himself to every child in that care. 'Take us to heaven to live with Thee there' is the Christian hope in one line: he goes to prepare a place and will take his own to be where he is. The plural 'us' is worth noticing. The carol that began with one child at one bedside ends as the prayer of the Church's children together.
- Scripture
- Matt 28:20, Mark 10:13-16, John 14:2-3, John 10:27-28, 1 Thess 4:17, Ps 23:6
- Imagery & language
- Nearness; tender care; heaven as living with him.
- Law / Gospel
- Gospel promises turned into petitions.
- Connection to previous
- Extends the night-prayer of st. 2 to the whole of life and to all children.