Discontentment... The geese are fat!

I was just musing on one of Tim's favourite little Christmas odes... 'Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in the old man's hat. If you have no penny, a ha'penny will do, and if you have no ha'penny then God bless you.'

I got a bit cross when thinkng about this, because I thought, what about the person singing this? What is he dropping in the old man's hat? He's just standing there blessing (well not even blessing, asking God to bless) the poor person who hasn't even got a ha'penny. Why isn't he sharing his fat goose with that poor person??

Then I thought a little more. Who is singing the song? "You" the Lord replied. "But I'm not some stuffy Victorian pious person" I immediately responded. The Lord went quiet. This usually means I have to think about what I have just said, (often with my tail between my legs!)

How often do we drop a token 'penny' into the hands of real need? What good will it do and what sacrifice have we really made? Does it liberate us from some sort of sense of guilt? Does it give us a 'feel good' factor with a high percentage?

Who around us this Christmas needs something that we have. As I look at the accumulating pile of presents on the bedroom floor of our cluttered flat, I begin to feel like I am harbouring fat geese. It is actually quite sickening. I don't think that the solution is to go out in to town, find a homeless person and dump loads of stuff on them, because this is like dropping a penny in the old man's hat.

What are the real needs? The materially poor are not the only poor that I know and most of the time I don't even take the time to get to know them. There are friends, who are poor in health, poor in spirit, poor financially, poor in love, poor in company, poor in encouragement, etc - what can I give, with a little sacrifice?