This Morning’s Gift

Christmas is almost always a bitter sweet time. It’s a time of reminiscing that evokes either fondness or failures from the recesses of your mind. Although I try, I cannot live in my Ozzie and Harriett world and pretend that all is well all the time. I must concede to the fact that life is very real, and not always very fun. But the one thing that cannot be taken from me and puts joy in my soul in the hardest of times is the Christmas verse.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It’s why Jesus came as a Baby and died as a Lamb. The final sacrifice for us all. It’s the gift that I receive every morning when I awake and realize that God gave me the gift of another day. Who but God can do that?  Santa may have left you a gift worth thousands beneath your tree today, but he cannot give you the gift of another day. Somebody may have handmade you the sweetest gift, but it cannot compare with the gift of a new day that God gave you. That’s where I’m at this Christmas morning; standing in awe that God saw fit to do it again. Now… what am I going to do with it?

I have family all around me that are going through some very rough times. I have to ask myself, “What can I do with this day to help them through?” I can share the last part of that Christmas verse… the gift that never ends. Everlasting life. Regardless of how many days we’re given down here, the fact of the matter is if we know Jesus we will never run out of days. That’s what He did when He wrote that Christmas verse in the scriptures; He gave us one more day. And when that one is through, we’ll have one more day.  And when life ends down here, we’ll have one more day.

I don’t know what’s going on in Heaven today, but I know that those for whom I love, who have gone on before me and knew my Lord and Savior, are enjoying Christmas day. One more day. Only theirs is without heartache, sorrow or pain. No family squabbles and no regrets! Oh glory what a Christmas morning.

What are you going to do with the gift you were given this morning?