Favorite Christmas Hymn
One of my favorite Christmas hymns is not in the “top ten” although it comes with huge credentials. It’s a poem written by the gifted 19th century poet, Christina Rosetti, with musician by the great Scandinavian composer, Gustav Hoist. Something about how the tune and words come together to evoke the reality of this world and how we, as God’s people, respond to it is so beautiful. It’s the ending words that impact me most, especially as the Christmas holidays turn into a new year, come as we know it will…with
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Our God, heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain,
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty —
Jesus Christ.
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.
For the snowbird who is NOT going to Florida for the cold months…
For those who watch children and grandchildren mature way too fast…
For those who are walking with dear friends dealing with illnesses and other detours in life…
For all of us who are growing in experience and age and aches and pains,
And who still don’t always get things right…
For everyone who greets the year of our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty-three…
The poem brings reassurance that no matter how bleak or cold a given time might be, God has a bigger plan that we can know. Where we see a stable and a poor babe in a manger, God’s power brings a new beginning and redemption. For, in God’s hands all things…all seasons, all years, all lives…are made perfect in love.
May our hearts be given over to that love each and every day before us. May we continue to learn and love each other as, together, we give thanks and gather to worslhip the One who has made us, provided for us, redemmed us, and calls us beloveded children.
Happy New year, dear family of Christ! Serving wit you in God’s grace,
SAM Jeanine
