Winter came in with a blast this past week. The cold, hard days remind me of Christina Georgina Rossetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter.” First published as a poem in 1872 and set to music as a hymn in 1906, Rossetti beautifully describes the inbreaking of God’s gracious hope in Jesus in a world so very cold and dark.
In the bleak midwinter 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 midwinter, 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 midwinter 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,
worshiped 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.
Jesus’ incarnation means we are loved, more than we know.
