What Child is This?

"What child is this, who laid to rest
On Mary's lap is sleeping?"

So asks the well-known Christmas carol. Of course, we all know that the child on Mary's lap was Jesus (or, more correctly, Jeshua). This popular hymn goes on to proclaim, "This, this is Christ the king!"

Well, yes, of course. But there's more to it.

"Christ" means "is anointed." Anointed with what? With the sacred and holy spirit of life. Every child is born with it, but most, if not all of us, start falling out of touch with the divine long before we reach puberty.

Picture in your mind a newborn baby, whether yours or a friend's.
That child, by its birth, is anointed with the pure and unadulterated spirit of humanity, which is little more than the simple desire to exist; the need to be loved and to learn. That child is a Christ: a king, if you like.
Every child ever born - male, female, other, or non-gendered - is anointed with the spirit that is the spirit of human life. The spirit that is human life. The newborn Christ.

Now picture one of the infants killed in the October 7th attack by Hamas on Gaza. Christ as well. Picture the dead child draped across his crying father's arms, as the IDF bombs Gaza into oblivion. Again: Christ. Along with the hundreds or thousands of others to date. So, too, the millions of third-world children with bellies distorted by hunger. All came into this world as pure and innocent Christs.

Picture any one of these: This, this is Christ 'the king'!

What are we doing? What have we done?