My Wednesday Advent devotional (Day-11) is built around a song. It’s my favorite Christmas carol, In The Bleak Midwinter, and I’m doing a very un-author-ish thing today, by singing it for you.

OK, for those of you who didn’t immediately bail, leave this page, and go on to read your next-favorite blogger, here’s the link to my YouTube rendition of the song. The arrangement is by James Taylor; the singing is unmistakably me; the guitar – not so bad.

(It’s also appropriate because this morning Scout and I discovered “crunchy grass.” I remember it from several decades ago, but for the dog it was a brand new “midwinter” experience.)

GIFTS: The tune, written by Gustav Holtz, is a penetratingly beautiful melody. But it’s the words, especially the last stanza, that always grab me.

“What can I bring him, empty as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; if I were a wise-man, I would know my part; What then can I give him? I must give my heart….”

Much of our attention during the Advent season seems to wander into the realm of gift-giving. “What can I give ________ ?” It’s always the big question, and there’s all sorts of help available to provide an answer:

• Catalogs
• TV ads
• Magazines and newspapers
• Recommendations
• Billboards
• Radio commercials
• Internet pop-ups… etc  –

it’s an overwhelming avalanche of information!

WHAT CAN I GIVE? It’s not that we’re not generous. Most of us even make very creditable efforts to give to charitable causes, especially around the holidays.

But the question that’s left hanging, the important query posed by In The Bleak Midwinter, is “What can I give ‘HIM.'”

That is my devotional thought for the day. “What can I give HIM, empty as I am?” And the answer, crystal clear and loaded with the signal imperative of the season, is this: “I must give my heart.”