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.

Comments

And on the seventh day...

Figure 1 http://www.montreat.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Mountains-2-400x250-300x187.jpg We think of “Sabbath” as a time to NOT DO something. We stop. We wait. We rest. We sit. However, that is a lot of work! I think of Sabbath as “making a space.” It is an active choosing, remembering, and prioritizing a holy space for God. It is less about “letting go” and more about “leaning in” to the Breath of the Holy Spirit. In this context Sabbath is a return to our making. You see, in the beginning “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). It is the breath of the Lord God that stirs dust into human. It is the breath of the Lord God that makes us living and gives us a life. Therefore, “Sabbath” – a time for rest and renewal, is an opportunity to reach for that breath of God which gives u...

Where is the Love--Guest Blogger Rev. Caroline Dennis

(Spiritual Practices for Families: Giving Thanks) Where is the Love? In December, amidst the wrappings and the shouts of glee, we found a quiet time to come to the manger and contemplate the great Love that God sent, wrapped in swaddling clothes. Here, as sparkling Christmas lights give way to snow and rain and ice, as gathered family gives way to bill paying and schedule keeping, how might we hold on those manger moments when we embraced the Love that embraces us? In these more ordinary days, can we still see the light that leads us to Bethlehem, to the ordinary extraordinary places where Love shows up? Here is my invitation to you, and to your children: Pause... in the middle of your "what's next" life... to see, hear, touch, smell, taste... all the amazing that is right here and now. Point it out to one another like we might point out the twinkling lights on a Christmas tree. Give thanks... for the warmth of the sweater, the wag of the do...

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Ask a small child to arrange a nativity scene and you might get something like this… My daughter did something similar to this during her first “active” Christmas Holiday season. That's the 1.5 year old Christmas where she was making meaning and learning faith stories as fast as her church family and I could tell them to her. She helped me set up our family nativity set minus Jesus; we did this because we wait until Dec. 24 th after church to find Jesus in the manger. She looked at each piece and named them. Explaining the story as she went through the box of precious figures, she placed each one with care. When she finished all I could see were the backs of the shepherds, sheep and camels. I couldn’t see Mary AT ALL! It was all wrong. As a young mother is want to do, I explained gently that the set should be set up in a “V” so we could see each individual piece. As an almost two year old/who thinks she is an adult will invari...

Second Church Steps

Search This Blog