By my reckoning today is Day 9 in the 12 Days of Christmas. I have been waiting all morning for the delivery from my true love of the “nine ladies dancing”. Thankfully, they aren’t here yet! There is an interpretation of the twelve gifts that attributes Christian symbolism to each gift. By this interpretation the dancing ladies represent the nine fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I am not sure I believe that a song that on one level is such a nonsensical song, has such deep meaning but I do like the listing of these qualities and if in the midst of post-Christmas blahs and sugar-overload recovery we get reminded of the higher calling of these qualities so much the better.
Henry Van Dyke wrote a beautiful poem called “Keeping Christmas”. He begins with the reminder, “There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas Day and that is keeping Christmas.” He then goes on to explain how we might do that. The lines that spoke to me say:
“Are you willing to forget what you have done for people, and to remember what other people have done for you; to ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world; to put your rights in the background and your duties in the middle distance and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground;”
He concludes with, “Then you can keep Christmas … but you can never keep it alone.”
And so dear readers as the Twelve days of Christmas wind to a close let us focus not on the getting but the giving; not on the retribution but the forgiveness; not on what we are entitled to but on how we can contribute.
