Rock the Cradle… Rule the World!
Photo by Alex Bodini on Unsplash
William Ross Wallace was a 19th Century American poet who wrote The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and understood what the contemporary church has too often forgotten… “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” It is a truth grounded in virtually every page of Scripture… Rock the cradle… rule the world!
Wallace wrote the poem (see below) as a tribute to mothers, but the truth underscores the power of anyone who influences “the cradle.” Moms, dads, caregivers, church volunteers… the list could go on. When you impact the life of a baby, you impact the world!
This simple reality is too often dismissed in the church as meaningless sentimentality. That’s because we wrongly imagine that power rests only in the hands of powerful adults. We forget that every adult is the product of someone who once rocked the cradle.
If you care for one or more babies (“true trophies of the ages”), you hold the capacity to “rule the world.”
If you are a Christian holding a newborn, you can “keep the young heart open always to the breath of God!”
If you are a parent, you will influence whether your child will produce “sunshine streamed or evil hurled.”
If you are a preacher, you can proclaim the power of the cradle and allow it to “mingle with the worship in the sky.”
What work will your hand find to do? Rock the cradle… rule the world!
The Hand that Rocks the Cradle*
By William Ross Wallace
Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy’s the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother’s first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow—
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky—
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
*Text used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License (CC BY-SA 3.0).
