Sabbath Devotional :: In the Bleak Midwinter
I have always been able to express my testimony best through music. So, this year, the MWEG Christmas devotional comes to you from my living room piano. The tune for Rossetti’s poem was written by Gustav Holst and then arranged by Wendy Lynn Stevens.
As I prepared this piece for my MWEG sisters, I felt both the bleakness of this moment in time and the celebration of the miracle of the Christ Child. May you feel the warmth of these words and this music as you ponder His birth. Please know I am also holding space in my heart for your grief. I pray that you can hear both in this music. You are complex, compassionate, and generous women who seek to bear burdens, mourn alongside each other, and bear witness to suffering. It is my privilege to know and love you.
In the Bleak Midwinter
Christina Rossetti
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,
Breastful of milk, and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.
Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped 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.
Emma Petty Addams is the co-executive director for Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
