Faith Formation at St. Martin's Episcopal Church
  • Home
  • Monthly Reflection
  • Lifelong Faith Formation
  • Mature Adults/Baby Boomers
    • Lenten Wilderness Exercise
    • Loneliness
    • God's Not Finished With Me Yet
    • Meditate your Way to Peace
    • Spirituality
    • Sharing Faith w/Grandkids/Children
    • The Power of Prayer
    • Faith in Action
  • Young Adult
    • Spirituality
    • Make a Better World >
      • Serve Others
    • Questioning Faith
    • A Gratitude Invitation
    • 1 ? to Ask Before U Take a Job
    • Do You Really Need Church?
  • Young Families
    • Parenting Children >
      • Spirituality of Parenting
      • Children and Generosity
      • A Child's Gift
      • Passing on your Faith
      • Get Kids Reading
      • Avoid Digital Distancing
      • What You Need to Know about Praise
      • Getting Kids Ready for School
      • ADD--A New Definition
      • Stages of Faith Formation
    • Spring Break Stay-cation >
      • Limit Computer Time
      • Photo Apps
      • Road Trip Music
      • Dance Tracks
      • Music Making Apps
      • Netflix Streaming
    • Prayer
    • Family Activities
    • Magical Moments
    • Rest in the Lord >
      • Give Yourself a (Re) Treat
      • Meditation
      • Living with Your Whole Heart
  • Tweens/Teens Families
    • Parenting Teens >
      • Mending the Parent/Teen Relationship
      • Improving Your Game
      • What Your Kids Need to Hear from YOU
    • Be - "tweens"
    • What is Sexy??
    • Do Unto Others
  • Just For Kids
    • Stories That Teach Us
    • Saints--And I want to be one too
    • Let's Sing
    • Best New(ish) TV Shows for Kids
    • I Want to Help Too!
  • Godparenting
  • Episcopal--Ease
    • Sacraments
    • What is an Episcopalian?
    • Chancel? What is a Chancel?
    • Stuff We Do During the Service
  • Safe Children-Tweens-Teens
    • Children and Violence
    • SmartPhone Safety Nets
    • Cyberbullying
    • 5 Facebook Privacy Settings to Keep Teens Safe
    • Social Media and Children/Teens
    • Educational Apps
  • Faith at Work
  • St. Martin's Episcopal Church
  • St. Martin's Pinterest Boards
Picture


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.


These touching words of Christina Rossetti’s poem is, without a doubt, one of my favorite Christmas carols, with its hauntingly beautiful melody for In The Bleak Midwinter. You are probably singing it now as you read this – as it’s a melody that stays with you. It has stayed with me for years.

It was at the beginning of the Epiphany season in our After School Atrium for the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd …

Mary Wells arrived a little late that day, after a tiring day at Kindergarten, and found comfort in her precious blankie hugged securely against her body. She joined the group sitting at the edge, and listened intently as I shared the scripture of the Gifts of the Magi using the three dimensional figures which serve to invite the atrium child into the story. As we reflected together on the scene of the three magi bringing precious gifts to the Christ child – we wondered what it would be like to be there, and what gift would we want to bring?

Responses came forth, naming everything from the prized training wheel bike newly received at Christmas, to the favorite LEGO™ set, and even a pizza, no less. After everyone else had verbalized their gift, Mary Wells spoke softly and somewhat hesitatingly as she said “I’d give him my blankie” – at which point she pulled herself to her feet and walked over to the diorama, and placed her blankie before the model-sized Christ child.

If I had any doubts about whether I had witnessed a child “giving him her heart,” the genuine offering of this gift was made poignantly clear when I discovered, after everyone had left at the end of the full atrium session – that there was one precious blankie left behind. It was exactly as she had placed it -  at the feet of the Christ Child. Did she consciously intend to leave it? Or had she gotten so involved with her follow up work that she simply forgot it? What bedtime trauma might this cause? Sometimes the mind has a way of acting out its deepest desires in spite of practical realities.

As a grandmother of children her same age – I was well aware that a child’s blankie is far more than a bundle of softly woven threads – but most often is the remains of the very cloth in which this child herself was wrapped as an infant (her own swaddling clothes). Its threads are woven of deep memory. On the outside chance that this memory might kick in around bedtime, I circled by her house on the way home, and left a message on the phone for her mom, that the blankie would be in the mailbox. And then again maybe she would be gifted by an even deeper memory bringing her a sense of inner peace – the same memory that possibly prompted her to step forth in the first place, and genuinely “give him her heart”.


© 2013. All rights reserved. Genelda Woggon has been ministered to and by children for over 40 years in her professional work as a Christian Formation Leader, most especially through the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for the past 20 years. Mary Wells is now twelve and is still a “giving” child. She spent her Thanksgiving holiday this year knitting a lovely hat for her Godmother who has lost her hair with recent chemo treatment.


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.