wrappings

Gift better than his God no man can see;
This gift doth here the giver given bestow,
Gift to this gift let each receiver be:
God is my gift, Himself He freely gave me,
God's gift am I, and none but God shall have me.

-Robert Southwell

The longest day of the year is behind us. With the tempered light of a winter's afternoon waning and the peculiar deep-dark of a winter's evening fast descending, I kindle a few candles for comfort's sake. (How luxurious to light a candle for one's own pleasure! No one is at home except #1 Son and he is working quietly upstairs.) Dinner is in the oven: chicken parmesan and two loaves of whole wheat bread. Snippets of this morning's choir rehearsal run through my head as I check off what gifts I bought for whom. As I unhurriedly wrap the last Christmas gifts, my mind dwells on the astonishing gift of Himself to us, wrapped only in a rough swaddling cloth and a bed of straw.

Thanks be to God for His immeasurable gift!