What shall I give Him, poor as I am...

We made it! Christmas is over! Well, not quite yet, it isn’t. There are those pesky twelve days of Christmas. The celebrating could go on and on, if we let it! Goodness, the tree is looking dry and empty without a load of boxes and bags underneath it. The ornaments that were hung with surprise, joy, and fondest memories now look somehow out of place.

Can we for one moment stop, and think about this? Think about that first rush of joy when a new child is born, when you first really felt the presence of the living God in your life? What about the first time a young Sunday School class looked at you in awe of the wonderful stories you were telling them? That moment sparkled with hope that was bursting with possibility! Here and now in the “bleak mid-winter” of post-New Years, to borrow from Christina Rossetti and hymn 144 in the Presbyterian Hymnal Glory to God, we find ourselves in the sleep deprived, post-adrenaline rush, visitor dispersing moments of Christmas. Epiphany is just days away, however isn’t it interesting that long ago Jesus was recognized in that quiet time, exhausted time, silent night time after the shepherds-sheep-donkey-cows have receded from the landscape?

I believe another Rossetti verse fits in right about here, at right about now.

“What can I give Him, poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd, I’d give him a lamb.

If I were a wise man, I would do my part.

What shall I give him? I’ll give him my heart.”

When the manic merriment is over, and the reality and daily-ness of life descends…so does the realization that what is most needed, what is most valued, what is most treasured is not the best package wrapped in boxes and bows; it is a life lived as a daily gift to the One who came down at Christmas time. Take the last few days of Christmas and like Mary, after the gifts are delivered and opened, let us remember “these things and ponder them in (our) heart” (Luke 2:19). Let’s let the celebrating go on and on… We can have a few more days, a few more weeks, a few more moments of God with us—if we let it.

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