The Gift

Well, the Christmas season has officially begun.  No not the Christmas shopping season, Walmart has been pushing Christmas ever since they put away the Halloween decorations.  No not the Christmas music season, Shelley never misses a chance to play a little Christmas music, even if it is 70 degrees, sunny, and the middle of September.  For me the real Christmas season begins with preparations for the first Sunday in December.  That is when we start singing Christmas carols in church and I start preaching about the starry night that changed the world forever.  Christmas time is a busy time around a church.  Parties, programs, and presentations fill every waking moment.  Add to the frenzy of the holiday the fact that final preparations for the New Year are also being made, and you have a somewhat chaotic time.  Just as the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping has a tendency to exhaust rather than fuel our Christmas spirit, the full calendar of Christmas events around the church can distract us from the most important point of this and every other season.  God loved this world soooo much that He gave us a very special gift, His Son.  This gift was a costly one.  God gave that which was most precious to Him, in order to pay the price for our rebellion and denial of His love.  Wow! Hard to understand, isn't it?  The details of the story, the manger, the shepherds, the inn that was full to overflowing, all serve to illustrate the wonderful plan of redemption that God established.  Anyone who is foolish enough to believe that their good works are sufficient to win them favor with God, just doesn't get the underlying story of Christmas.  Christmas is all about a loving God's response to fallen man's desperate need.  Man's inherent sinfulness had condemned our race to judgment and death, but God "so loved the world" that He made the only provision possible for our dilemma. He sent His Son to be the very first Christmas Gift.  He came into the world that the world might be saved.  Through his birth, life, death, and resurrection, He offered us the gift of eternal life, something that we were incapable of earning.  That is the true meaning of this hectic season.  So over the next few weeks, as you prepare for the time that you will spend celebrating the holiday with your family and friends, don't forget that the reason for the season is the gift, God's gift to you.

Accumulated Grace

On Tuesday of this week, I celebrated my 51st birthday.  Shelley wasn't feeling well and went to bed early that evening, so I sat up for a while and thumbed through the old photo albums and reminisced about my life.  It was fun seeing all of the pictures of my childhood and early adult years.  It reminded me of all that I have to be thankful for in my life.  Each picture brought back memories about the stories that surrounded that particular event.  People that have played such a big part of my life that now have moved on, either to heaven or down the path that their own journeys have taken them on, others who still have a daily impact on my life, all were gifts of God's grace to me at a time when I needed them most.   That stroll down memory lane helped me to realize that what I am today is the product of the accumulated grace of God over these many years.  His creative nature has continued to mold me and shape me through the interaction that I have had with the poeple that He has brought into my life.  Some experiences have been soft and sweet, feeding my spirit and helping me to grow.  Others have been tough and abrasive and God has used them like sandpaper to knock off the rough edges. The influence of some has come in a few, occasional short doses, while others have been a constant, faithful, abiding presence upon which I have been able to rely, but now I see that each was sent from the hand of God to make me into what I am today.  This seasoned, rugged, 51-year-old body and soul has stood the test of time.  It has a few scars and a few constant aches and pains, but for the most part it is still strong and capable.  I know that I still have a job to do and that in order to do it, I still need a daily dose of God's grace and mercy.  I am thankful that He has given me a goodly number of friends and loved ones to continue the process of building, molding, shaping, and, yes, sanding me into a more representative likeness of His Son.  And after all, you're only as old as you feel, right? :0)