Snow Job - Christina Rossetti

1830–94

Christina came from an artsy family full of intellectual energy. They emigrated from Italy to England and quickly made friends with many of the leaders in London’s social, scientific, and literary spheres. Then Christina’s father became ill, and the family suddenly had financial troubles. She herself had a nervous breakdown at age fourteen and was plagued with depression for much of her life.

Plenty and poverty, energy and ennui—it all seems like a recipe for the making of a great artist, and so it was. Christina Rossetti came through it all as one of the most renowned poets in England, at least on a par with Elizabeth Barrett Browning. With a background in both the Anglican and Catholic churches, Christina often wrote on biblical themes.

In 1872, after she had already gained fame with a couple of books of poetry, Christina was asked to provide a Christmas poem for an American magazine, Scribner’s Monthly. She responded with “In the Bleak Midwinter,” which was later set to music as a Christmas hymn.

In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow.

Perhaps you’ve heard some well-meaning fact-checker explain that Jesus was probably born in the spring, not midwinter, and that the chances of snow at the Nativity were pretty close to zero. But please, let’s allow the poet to do her work. Jesus certainly came to a “bleak” world. This gifted writer was tapping into spiritual realities, not giving a weather report.

And we might imagine how a depressed soul might feel “hard as iron.” Haven’t we felt that way sometimes, our true selves buried under frozen layers? To get through to us, God needs to burst out of heaven and enter our world. And that’s exactly what he did. Sometimes our own midwinter experiences, even in the celebration of this festive holiday, leave us cold. Coming out of her own emotional numbness, this skilled poet brings us to a place of simple wonder.

He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

Ephesians 2:17, NIV