A Gift from the Heart
Watercolor illustration by Phyllis Luch
I would like to begin by wishing anyone reading this a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful new year for you and your family.
As my wife and I were preparing for Christmas, we were thinking about what to gift each of our family and friends. Thoughts came to us as to what we could give each one and we would write them down, not to forget. Then we began to search for the gifts we had thought up for each person. Wow! This year is impossible! Everything that we had been thinking about was not available due to “supply chain issues!” Just about everything that we were planning on getting was not going to be here in time. And we started our planning in September! Oh my! We did find a gift that we wanted to get for each other. So we took the leap and ordered it. As you may expect, some of it has arrived and some might be here after the first of the year. We were disheartened. What to do? We were frantic and panicked.
No long after we settled into the panic mode of Christmas purchases for 2021, we were listening to some music. One piece changed all of our thinking for this Christmas.
Christina Georgina Rossetti wrote a poem entitled “A Christmas Carol.” She did not lead a typical life for her day. She suffered with several bouts of depression, had Graves disease, and eventually died of breast cancer at the turn of the last century. Her father was afflicted with health issues as well and most of the family’s financial needs were left to her mother to fill. Christina was left alone for long periods of time while her mother worked and her father was ill with tuberculosis. To say she had a difficult life, by our standards, would be correct. It is amazing then that she turned to writing poems. Her poem entitled “A Christmas Carol” was later found by the composer Gustav Holst, who turned it into one of England’s most beloved carols. The last stanza of the poem goes,
What can I give him?
Poor as I am
If I were a shepherd
I would give a lamb
If I were a wise man
I would do my part
But what can I give him
Give him my heart,
Give him my heart.
The title of the song was changed from the original poem title to “In the Bleak Mid Winter” by Gustav Holst and is sung around the world today.
As we listened to these words being sung, it struck us that we didn’t need to worry at all about shopping in the crowds, supply chain issues, COVID, or getting sick with the cold or flu. What we needed to do was to give the gift to everyone we loved of something from our heart. That way, we would also be giving the same gift to our Savior.
So, with renewal of thought and spirit, we have created gifts fit for each of those we love. Something that is from our heart. Something that will endure forever. Our hope is that you too can ask yourself, what can I give? I will give my heart. And in turn, as the Savior of mankind has said, “as you do it to one of the least of these, you have done it unto me.”
Have a Merry Christmas giving from your heart. God loves each of you and knows you by your first name. I know that is true.
Play the video below to listen to “In the Bleak Midwinter” sung by Rise Up Children’s Choir.