What Shall We Give?

In case you haven't seen this yet - I only saw it this morning - the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is offering five Christmas songs for download in a free sampler called What Shall We Give? If you're interested, you can find the downloads here. Naturally, What Shall We Give? is one of the songs being offered, and it also happens to be one of my favorites.

What shall we give to the babe in the manger?
What shall we offer the child in the stall?
Incense and spices and gold we've aplenty.
Are these the gifts for the king of us all? 

What shall we give to the boy in the temple?
What shall we offer the man by the sea?
Palms at his feet and hosannas uprising,
Are these for him who will carry the tree? 

What shall we give to the man who was offered,
Rising the third day and shedding his love?
Tears for his mercy we'll weep at the manger,
Bathing the infant come down from above.

I love this song for its chillingly beautiful music, but also more especially for its lyrics. "What shall we give to Jesus?" is an important question to ask. Unfortunately, now that I've reviewed the lyrics specifically, I'm afraid we're not given a very satisfactory answer. "Tears for His mercy" may be all that we can really offer Him, but it doesn't feel like it's anywhere near enough of a gift. Jesus gave His life for us. What can we possibly give Him in return?

Ours.

Jesus doesn't ask many people to die for Him. There have been many fewer martyrs recently than in the past. But He asks all of His followers to do something that may be even more difficult. He wants us to live for Him, and more especially to live like Him. He wants us to serve others, keep the commandments, and generally be Christlike. This takes more effort than dying for Him or shedding tears of gratitude, but it's what He really wants.

It's also how we can make use of the gifts that He has given us. The Atonement has almost no effect on us unless we try to repent. Jesus' teachings and commandments are useless to us unless we learn from them and follow them. We'll still be resurrected, even with no further effort on our part, but what's the point of living again if there was no real purpose to our lives in the first place? Jesus gave us some very wonderful gifts. He wouldn't want us to waste them. Instead, He wants us to use them to become better people and to do good.

As our gift of gratitude to Him, Jesus wants us to love Him and become more like Him. In essence, He's asking for our hearts. It's a pretty great sacrifice to give your heart to someone, but if I can give my heart to anyone, it's Him. I'll try to give my heart to Him. It's weak, and frequently rebellious, but I'll try. And if I succeed, I'll be so much more able to receive the gifts He has offered to me - gifts for which I'm afraid I'll never be able to thank Him enough.