“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 can I give him? Give my heart.
“In the Bleak Midwinter” – I am sure you recognize it. It was based on a poem by the English writer Christina Rossetti, written sometime before 1872, when the magazine Scribner’s Monthly requested a Christmas poem, and was published posthumously in Rossetti’s Poetic Works in 1904. It became a Christmas carol in The English Hymnal in 1906, set by composer Gustav Holst.
I love my grandchildren – I have four of them now, ages 16, 12, 10 and 3. My sister once said that if she had known grandchildren were so wonderful she might have skipped having children altogether, and gone straight to grandchildren. Grandchildren hold our hearts in a very special way. When I was living in Newfoundland and the eldest grandchild began high school, she wrote on Facebook that I was the best grandmother because I always gave her good advice and helped her a lot. I cried, and felt like my heart was bursting out of my chest.
We humans have the capacity to offer our hearts to anyone, any time, anywhere. Jesus said “Inasmuch as you have done for one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you have done it to me.” Every time we let our hearts be opened to this amazing power of love which we celebrate in this Christmas season, every time we offer our hearts in love, we are giving them to the One who leads us to enlightenment.
Heart of Love, fill us this day, as we go about our Christmas season. Remind us that the greatest gift we can ever give is our simple and pure heart. May it be so.
