“What can I give him, poor as I am?
… what can I give him: give my heart.”
This hymn and poem always stuck out to me as an odd choice for a hymn about Christmas. Growing up in South Georgia, snow was something seen only on TV or cotton under the trees at the Mall. And the very word “bleak” hardly conveys the joy of the advent of Jesus. And why did only Mary worship Jesus? How about Joseph and the wise men? Where are the Magi with the splendor of royal gifts? Plenty of questions for a future Bible study!
As I have reflected on this song over the years, it hit me one Sunday in the pew that I was being what my wife calls “engineer literal”. Perhaps this hymn is not about the weather in Bethlehem nor about the squalor of the stable. Maybe it’s about the bleakness of humans at their worst. And the only ground that was hard was in our hearts rather than in the garden supplying the inn’s restaurant.
And the most important part of the hymn sneaks in at the end. We are all poor spiritually. We can only give Him our heart, even if we can afford Magi-level gifts. And that is all he ever asks. Simple, yet easy to forget.
Perhaps that’s the entire point. It’s through Him that all goodness and gifts arrive to us. We cannot make winter go away but we can gather around the warmth and certainty of His gift. (James 1:17). We don’t have to overthink it. Just let go, spring is coming!
Prayer: Dear Lord, let us never give up hope that our Gift is always near.
Glenn Scott