The Best Christmas Gift…

I am sure that once in awhile we get the question posed to us of what is the best gift you ever have received for Christmas? I have discussed with a friend recently the criteria of a truly great gift. A few of the simple criteria included that the gift was unexpected and it has to be thoughtful. Another thing I may add would be that it could be undeserved.

This Christmas I was lucky enough to receive one of those truly great gifts. The best gift I received was having my Sister, Brother-in-Law, and my wonderful niece here for Christmas. Undeserved, unexpected, and very thoughtful. Thank you for making the effort to come down…

In closing, I wanted to with everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I also wanted to say that we all have been given a truly great gift! We may be undeserving of it, we may not be expecting it, and its hard to imagine the thought involved. God gave us this truly great gift through His Son Jesus Christ. I think it says it best in a few lines from “Hark, The Herald Angles Sing”

Hark the herald angles sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!
Peace on earth and mercy mild
God and sinners reconciled”

Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angles sing
“Glory to the newborn King!

I Know You Love Me…

“I know that you love me..” Those were the words which were uttered from my little nieces mouth to my sister upon her arrival home from work the other day. Earlier in the day my niece was spending time with her grandma and had touched the hot stove top even after having been told not to many times before by her mother. Fortunately she did not hurt herself bad but it was enough that she knew she had done something wrong. When my sister arrived home from work, my niece was asked by her grandma to tell her mother what she had done today. So she began to tell her mother that she had burned her hand on the stove and she finished the sentence with the most amazing that anyone could ever say. She finished that sentence to her mother with these words; “…and I know that you love me because you didn’t want me to get hurt.”

How amazing is that! I reminded my sister that she may want to record that and play it back to my niece when she turns sixteen just as a reminder that as her parent her goal is not to ruin her fun but motivation is out of love and out of a desire not to see her get hurt.

The other thing that crossed my mind was how much we are just like my niece when it comes to our relationship with God. How much better would we be if we truly took her words to heart and understood them to be really true in our lives. God has given us commands in His Word in order to share with us His Love. He is our Heavenly Father and He loves you and He loves me and I know that he loves you and He loves me because he doesn’t want you or me to get hurt. While this applies to a lot of the commands found in the Bible of do’s and don’t, the ultimate consideration of this comes the thought that because of our sins we must be punished but God sent his Son to pay our penalty, to get hurt so that we don’t have to. In Isaiah 53:5 it says:

“But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.”

Now That Is Confidence!

My parents have just arrived home from a trip to Erie, PA. they were able to visit with a lot of family including my lovely, talented and beautiful (..did i mention wonderful) niece Alana! And yes, she can now spell her name…(did i mention smarter then your niece) My sister gave them some photos from this past month that were great! During the trip one of the family members went up to Alana and said, “you are such a pretty little girl” and Alana replied very confidently, “Yes, I know…” Reminded me of the confidence that we should have. No, not in our looks, but in our hearts. We all have sinned and fallen short and our hearts are ugly towards God but because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross, and only because of that, our hearts are now viewed as white as snow, or that “pretty little girl” if you will. And we can be confident of that not because of us, but because of what Christ has done for us!

Amazing Love…

I find it amazing to think about the impact that a little, wonderful bundle of joy called a niece can make on someone in such a short period of time.

Without seeing her besides a big belly on your sister…

Without her making a noise…

Without holding her in your arms…

Without feeding her from a bottle…

Without her looking in your eyes…

Without her grabbing your finger…

Without her hiccup…

Without her spit-up…

Without her pooping in her diaper…

Without her smile…

you still Love her..even without all of these things.

Before all of these you Loved her but when you add all of these things.how much more can you love her!

It is amazing to think that even without those things I loved this little girl. Even with out seeing her, holding her, or talking to her. She is a part of my family and that is all I really need to know. Beyond that nothing else really matters? Not to mention the fact that she is so adorable and the cutest little baby girl you have ever seen.

Then you add all of the wonderful things she does as she continues to grow and grow.and begin to walk, and begin to talk, and

With her calling your name…

With her waving hello and good bye…

With her throwing the ball to you…

With her waking you up from a nap…

With her eating breakfast with you…

With her counting to 10 but skipping 3 & 4…

With her saying your name…

With her sharing a cookie…

With her asking you to color…

With her giving you a kiss goodbye…

you still love her with all of these things.
No matter what she does in her life, whether good or bad, that will never change. All because she is part of the family.

With or without… I love her…Isnt it amazing???

No matter what we do as sons or daughters of God whether good or bad, His Love will never change because we are apart of His family..

With or without… He loves us…Isnt it amazing??

In conclusion, I see a challenge that those who are in Christ should be loved by us regardless. Not because they are rich, or they are popular, or pretty, from the right town, the right profession, they went to the right school. Let us not show favoritism in those who we deicide who we should love. If they are in our family, that is all that should matter. And to those who are in the family, we should love them just because Christ has first loved us. And we should demonstrate that to others in order for them to see the love that Christ has displayed to us.

We should display His Love….with or without

Amazing Love, how can it be? That you my King would die for me.