On our liturgical calendar we are in the middle of the Christmas season, about halfway to Epiphany on January 6th. Yet in our homes the Christmas season may look a bit different. The gifts have long since been opened, the wrappings discarded. Even the leftovers from our Christmas feast have been consumed by now. Our guests have returned home and we too are likely returned home from any holiday travels.

The New Year is ever so close. For me, this is a time to organize and reflect. Organizing comes easily to me, I actually enjoy cleaning my closets, organizing my desk, even re-doing that bothersome list of “passwords.” (Ok, I expect some of you don’t share my love for organization.) Reflecting, for me, takes a little more effort. It means sitting quietly, looking back at the past year and contemplating the one to come. What does God want of me in this New Year? How can I serve Him? What talents could I use more fully? And not only what, but who. Who has God placed in my path that needs to hear of His love?
And that, my friends, brings to mind a favorite Christmas hymn, “In the Bleak Midwinter.”* The second stanza speaks to each of us.

“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.”*

God has blessed each one of us with gifts to use in His service. Whether the task be momentous or humble, He is pleased when it is done with love in our heart. Let’s make 2020 the year in which we truly strive to share His unconditional love.

Judy

*In the Bleak Midwinter, Text Christina Georgina Rossetti, 1830-1894, Music Gustav Holst, 1874-1934, Lutheran Book of Worship, Hymn 294.