The Gift...

I happened to spend some time last week driving through a city cemetery.  I don't visit cemeteries often but I was trying to teach a friend how to drive and it seemed the perfect place.  As we slowly wound our way around the grounds, I started to read the various headstones, noticing that many were very old.  I remembered reading a few months back how within 75 years of our passing, there most likely won't be a single person left who remembers us.  Wow, I thought, 75 years isn't even that long.  To think that a life can come and go so quickly, only to then be forgotten so quickly is rather shocking and perhaps even disheartening.   How can our lives, that seem to stretch out endlessly before us, suddenly come to an end and be forgotten so quickly?   A verse I memorized a long time ago came to mind...  

1 Peter 2:24-25  “People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord remains forever.”

On Christmas today, I watched as my kids opened all of their gifts, big smiles on their faces.  New memories were made that I hope they will carry with them into adulthood.  

A large box sat on our toybox for me...a gift the girls had made for me over the past month.  As I eagerly tore into it, a beautiful warm blanket that they had crocheted lay inside.  Any gift is special when you know that the giver had you in mind...but there is definitely something extra special about a handmade item.  There is an extra element of sacrifice, knowing it took a great deal of time to gather all of the supplies and make it.  

As I look back on this past month leading up to Christmas, I think about all the ways God has comforted me, encouraged me, and touched my life, preparing my heart to receive His most precious Gift.  

His Gift is free to everyone, yet cost Him everything.

His Gift is priceless and endures forever

His Gift is His own Son, Jesus.  

When I think of the lengths He went for me, I realize how deeply He loves me and how precious each day is that He gives me.  I take so many things for granted, over and over again.  I take so many of my days for granted, not appreciating all that He has given me.  When I come to the end of it all, I hope I can look back and say that I spent my days meaningfully and lived with a purpose, driven by the Gift God has given me.  I hope I can say that I cherished that Gift, every day.  Every one of us has an opportunity to know God and accept or reject His gift.  I pray that you will take hold of the Gift of Jesus, and in finding Him, you will find a greater joy than you have ever known before.