Without still stand those long denied,
Compassed in want and fear.
Bowed with the crown of Motherhood,
I seek that Shepherd of old;
“How can mine own receive the good
With some left out of the fold?”
(Isabel Kimball Whiting in The Survey. By permission.)
Is it enough for us to plan that our own children and those near and dear to us shall be made happy by our Christmas tokens of love and remembrance? Truly it is such a busy, rushing time that even our regular church work must often be set aside that the Christmas obligations may be met. But a true mother heart is big enough to take in more, and ever more, and the blessing of growth is bestowed on each heart that opens to admit new objects of love.
“Recently,” says the Outlook, “a tender, gentle, refined woman who has identified herself with those movements which seek to improve the conditions of child life, said, ‘I have had a new thought come to me that has made me accept the loss of my little girl with patience, almost with resignation. God never meant that a woman should be the mother to just one little girl. He meant that every woman should be mother to every child in the world.’”
“How I wish I could give a Christmas present to Jesus!” said a loving little girl, her eyes dancing with Christmas joy as she surveyed the small gifts, so long planned and carefully prepared for her dear ones. For her the very essence of Christmas was its expression in visible tokens to those whom she loved. If we mothers long to “give a Christmas present to Jesus,” what could be more acceptable to Him, than the dedication of an hour of this busy, happy Christmas season to loving prayer and thought for the mothers and children in our own community and throughout the wide world? Thus shall we be drawn near to the heart of the great Father, and, if during this hour some angel messenger whispers to our hearts of a special task which He is willing to entrust to us, may we be ready to answer with Mary of old,—“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word!”