Giving the best we have

The little drummer boy is one of the songs commonly thought of as a Christmas classic and has been featured on countless Christmas albums since it was written in 1941. But though I love the song, I must be honest, growing up I never had a clue what the song was about. Oh, it’s Christmastime again, yes let’s sing about a little boy drumming!! Wait, what? Why on earth are we singing about a little boy drumming?

Listening to it again as I’m older I started to understand the lyrics a bit more. The song is a story about a boy who is going to visit the newborn baby Jesus. The boy is not wealthy himself, but is visiting Jesus in a manager, and realizes that Jesus isn’t exactly living a life of luxury and doesn’t exactly look the way royalty normally do, but the boy knows that Jesus deserves the best. The lyrics are “our finest gifts we bring to lay before the king.” The Bible details how after Jesus was born, he was visited by many people bringing gifts to honor him. Wise men came from the east to give gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh, fragrant resins from plants that were brought to give this child (Matthew 2:11). All were truly expensive, valuable and useful offerings, but more then that, the gifts were brought to the child because the men wanted to honor and worship the son of God. Shepherds even stopped their work and left the fields to come and worship the babe, simply because of who he was (Luke 2).

But for the child in the song, what gift could he possibly give that was as good as gold? He didn’t have money, or connections to important people, or anything really that we would typically reserve for royalty. All he had was his drum, so he offered to play a song for the baby Jesus, and to play his best. What more could Jesus ask from our lives then work dedicated as a gift to him? The lyrics describe that Jesus smiled back at him, which I think is a sweet ending to the song, but more amazing to me is that it is the truth.

For Christmas, we often try to get and give the best of the best- the newest gift, the most impressive option, the most staggeringly creative present. I faithfully start thinking about gifts in November, ready to look up, purchase, download, send, mail, and deliver in the perfect timeline. But most of the time after I send all the gifts, I stay at home, far away from the friends and family I have tried the most to remember. I forget far too often that things are not as complicated as I make them out to be. Have you ever thought that perhaps the best gift you could give is actually you?

 

The most precious thing you can give to Jesus is not expensive gifts, it is yourself. He doesn’t need your money, he doesn’t need expensive gifts of gold and perfume, doesn’t even need your attendance at church, though he appreciates it. All he wants is your heart, your best, yourself. It doesn’t seem like much sometimes, but the thing Jesus wants most is not just you showing up, or giving money, or an important act of service- he responds most to the heart behind them. And even more then that, he deserves it. He was the perfect son of God who gave up his entire life for us, and deserves everything we have to offer though he usually gets a half-hearted, second-thought gift from us as we rush off to do something else. I encourage you to think this season about what you have to offer Jesus that matters to him so much more than we realize- yourself, and, just like the little boy drumming, imagine him smiling in return at the simplicity and beauty of love.