This was my mothers most popular party song. She sang it with an unusual passion and feeling which I remember well clearly stimulated her audience. The song for me is a lament of the loss of natural healing wisdom which our ancient culture was famous for. The thorn tree ha extraordinary healing properties.
It's reference too little people and Christ is an allusion to his entreaty to be like little children, who heal naturally as they relate without fear to our environment. To lose our child likeness is to cloud our vision, our soul. We have yet as a nation been able to grasp this.