In these Christmastide days, it is now our time to treasure and ponder all that we have seen and heard.
Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone.
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
In the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Those are the words of the first stanza of a poem by Christina Rossetti. (The words have been set to music in the Christmas carol, In the Bleak Midwinter.) It seems that Miss Rossetti assumed that the place of Jesus’ birth had weather like her own home in England. While the frosty wind, the frozen ground, and the snow on snow may not have been a part of the Bethlehem scene, I think she writes about the “feeling” of the time and place.
I enjoy Advent and Christmas. The festive days take energy, but there is something joyous in the air. I dread those days after New Year’s when all the “stuff” gets packed. The house seems so naked without all the special decorations and lights. The days are short; the darkness long. Resolutions are already forgotten or broken. It is the “bleak midwinter” (and winter has barely even started). It seems as if we have done so well in celebrating birth only to be confronted with the dark and cold of winter.
In Parker Palmer’s series of essays, Let Your Life Speak, he uses the seasons of nature to describe the seasons of our lives. He writes, “Winter is a demanding season – and not everyone appreciates the discipline. It is a season when death’s victory can seem supreme; few creatures stir, plants do not visibly grow, and nature feels like our enemy.” He then reminds us that “times of dormancy and deep rest are essential to all living things.” Nature is not dead in winter, even though it may seem that way. Wintertime is needed to prepare for springtime renewal and new growth.
It seems that way in life, too. We all have our valleys – our winter times when we feel failure, betrayal, depression, even death. The stable of Bethlehem looked nothing like a place for new life. The people of the day were more worried about getting registered and making their way back home than they were about something new in our world. Yet the gift of Christmas gives us One who walks with us; a compassionate friend who knows the hills and the valleys of our lives, who understands our bleak midwinter days as well as our times of joy and gladness. This One, our Christ, sits at the hand of God and can whisper in God’s ear to explain what its like to live in these mortal bodies of ours. This Christ walks with us through our winter days to lead us into the new birth which is real love and life, this day and forever.
Rossetti ends her carol with:
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.
That is all that we can do – give our hearts to Christ. And although the signs of midwinter are all around us, there is warmth of heart and soul. Christ is with us. Emmanuel has come.
Prayer:
Loving God, giver of Christmas and all our days, we bring to you the bleak midwinter days of our lives. May we treasure your Gift to us, trust your presence with us, and surrender our hearts to your love. Lead us through these days so that we may experience the gift of renewal and new growth; with Christ we pray. Amen.
Dr. Mark Connor
Western District Superintendent
