This is day 3 of “The 12 Days Leading to Christmas.” Each day I am highlighting a Christmas hymn that is worth our listening to as Christians this Christmas season. You can read more about the goal of the series here.
Today I highlight for you “See Amid the Winter’s Snow” written by the British churchman Edward Caswall in 1858. In 1870 Sir John Goss wrote the music that is commonly sung with this hymn. 
Caswall’s poem is, in one sense, very simple. He focuses upon the birth of Jesus. We are drawn to the manger, to the shepherds who first worshipped the baby Jesus, and to the angels who announced His birth. In one sense this is standard fare for a Christmas carol. However, there are some glorious expressions of the awesome nature of Christ’s humility in coming to us in this hymn. In fact, Sir John Goss rightly understood this emphasis on humility when he penned the hymn tune. He named the tune “humility.”
Note a couple expressions of this humility. In verse 1, Christ is said to be “Born for us on earth below.” Verse 2 contains one of my favorite poetic expressions ever outside the Bible on the humility of Christ – “Lo, within a manger lies He who built the starry skies.” Verse 5 speaks of the contrast from the bliss of glory that Christ left to “such a world as this.” The last verse calls on us to imitate that humility of Jesus in our daily living.
Here are the lyrics:
See, amid the winter’s snow,
Born for us on Earth below,
See, the tender Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.
Refrain:
Hail, thou ever blessed morn,
Hail redemption’s happy dawn,
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem.
Lo, within a manger lies
He who built the starry skies;
He who, throned in height sublime,
Sits among the cherubim.
[Refrain]
Say, ye holy shepherds, say,
What your joyful news today;
Wherefore have ye left your sheep
On the lonely mountain steep?
[Refrain]
“As we watched at dead of night,
Lo, we saw a wondrous light:
Angels singing ‘Peace On Earth’
Told us of the Saviour’s birth.”
[Refrain]
Sacred Infant, all divine,
What a tender love was Thine,
Thus to come from highest bliss
Down to such a world as this.
[Refrain]
Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
By Thy face so meek and mild,
Teach us to resemble Thee,
In Thy sweet humility.
[Refrain]
Have a listen:
Hymn solo by Fernando Ortega –
Choral Arrangement by Dan Forrest –