Shopping is underway, even though the malls don't seem as busy this year. But still, the hustle and bustle to find the perfect gifts is apparent and the facial expressions of many are digressing into droopy jowled exhaustion. For all the effort, how much will it take to be "enough?" How much of what they received will the recipients of our gifts remember this time next year? How much will you yourself remember?
God gives us personalized gifts every day of our life, and sometimes we don’t even recognize them, or are completely unaware of their presence. There are even days when we are completely unaware of God’s presence
Chances are, if we only received one gift each year, we would not only remember what it was and who it was from, but we would appreciate it more and look forward to it with greater anticipation. But what if the one gift you waited for all year was presented to you in a way you didn’t understand. What if the person responsible for your gift took you out on a fishing trip and spent hours teaching you his secrets to fishing and talking about life. What if that person told you how much they valued your friendship and that they looked forward to being friends forever. And at the end of the day they said, “okay bud, had a great time, see ya later.”
Would you be thinking, “hey that was fun. I wonder what he’s gonna get me this year?”
Would you still be anticipating your “GIFT?”
The Israelites did. They awaited a new King that was going to save them from all their troubles and hardships. They wanted a “FREE ticket to a great life” What they received didn’t look like what they expected, and most of them missed it.
The gift was God giving us a piece of Himself.
The gift is His presence in good times and in bad.
THE gift was Emmanuel, God with us.
He showers us with gifts every day if we’ll only notice them.
He speaks to us all day long in constant contact.
You wanna hear from God?
Then quiet down and listen. He generally isn’t going to talk “over” you.
I guess you could say, He is the gift that keeps on giving.
But, it’s not the gifts we should anticipate……
It’s not the extraordinary encounters with God that go beyond human reasoning or understanding we should be looking for……
………..it’s the friendship.....
And it’s in that friendship that we are changed in spite of ourselves.
Merry Christmas
God gives us personalized gifts every day of our life, and sometimes we don’t even recognize them, or are completely unaware of their presence. There are even days when we are completely unaware of God’s presence
Chances are, if we only received one gift each year, we would not only remember what it was and who it was from, but we would appreciate it more and look forward to it with greater anticipation. But what if the one gift you waited for all year was presented to you in a way you didn’t understand. What if the person responsible for your gift took you out on a fishing trip and spent hours teaching you his secrets to fishing and talking about life. What if that person told you how much they valued your friendship and that they looked forward to being friends forever. And at the end of the day they said, “okay bud, had a great time, see ya later.”
Would you be thinking, “hey that was fun. I wonder what he’s gonna get me this year?”
Would you still be anticipating your “GIFT?”
The Israelites did. They awaited a new King that was going to save them from all their troubles and hardships. They wanted a “FREE ticket to a great life” What they received didn’t look like what they expected, and most of them missed it.
The gift was God giving us a piece of Himself.
The gift is His presence in good times and in bad.
THE gift was Emmanuel, God with us.
He showers us with gifts every day if we’ll only notice them.
He speaks to us all day long in constant contact.
You wanna hear from God?
Then quiet down and listen. He generally isn’t going to talk “over” you.
I guess you could say, He is the gift that keeps on giving.
But, it’s not the gifts we should anticipate……
It’s not the extraordinary encounters with God that go beyond human reasoning or understanding we should be looking for……
………..it’s the friendship.....
And it’s in that friendship that we are changed in spite of ourselves.
Merry Christmas