What does God want from us?   This poem offers us the answer.

It echoes the one we find in Psalm 51.

What will we give Jesus this Christmas? Is it the gift He truly desires?

 

 

In the Bleak Mid-Winter

  Christina Rosetti

 

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, heav’n cannot hold him

Nor earth sustain;

Heav’n and earth shall flee away

When he comes back to reign;

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

 

Enough for him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk,

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for him, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

 

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But only his mother

In her maiden bliss

Worshipped the Beloved

With a kiss.

 

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.