The Greatest Gift

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;

If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.”

~from ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti

Many of us will be singing, or have sung, these words at some time over this Christmas season. The first verse of the carol, ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ begins with words that echo many Christmases here in Canada: ‘In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,’ and so we usually find it included in at least one of the services held at this time of year.

For me it has always fit in with the sentimentality of a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service. Yes, we can all give our heart to this young babe - after all who doesn’t find babies hard to resist~ The songs of angels singing in the heavens, a bright star in the dark winter sky, potentates arriving from afar to join with the common folk around a manger the stable, the cattle lowing… such is the stuff our Christmas pageants and therefore our Christmas memories.

What this verse always said to me was that material things or actions were the preferred gifts, but seeing that I was neither a shepherd or a wise man, that was not for me. Instead, [and as a definite second-best, BTW], I could give him my heart. What this hymn doesn’t say, and what wasn’t clear to me for many years is that the giving of my heart is actually the hardest and the most expensive gift that I can give. That it involves the giving up of those other things I am holding there, even including family, and putting Him first. If I give him my heart, then it and everything in it belongs to him. It becomes very expensive as I give up those activities that I enjoy doing but that will no longer fit into this heart that is no longer mine.

This babe in the manger, to whom I am asked to give my heart, grew up to be a radical, visionary who lived out a renewed vision of the kingdom of God. If I like making sarcastic remarks about those who have pissed me off, too bad. That no longer fits into a heart that wants to treat others as it wants to be treated. And what about that newer, bigger, house I want to buy when there are people living on the streets without any kind of shelter? The zinger ones when I am asked to sell all that I have and give the money to those less well off. Really???

Yet these are the gifts required of us in this well-known and well-loved Christmas Carol. All of these gifts are in fact gifts to our fellow citizens, gifts the improve life for those few we connect with personally as well as for the myriad of others that they connect with in their lives.

So this Christmas, consider what the greatest gift is that you can give and then take the next small steps towards making it a reality.

"Our weakness, our story of struggle, even the truth about the cost of our choice to follow God — these are the greatest gifts we have to give to others in their journey."
- Rick Richardson [an ordained Anglican priest & a Professor of Evangelism and Leadership at Wheaton College]

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