Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! <2 Corinthians 9:15 NKJV>
As Gabi and I were putting up our Christmas tree and setting out decorations, I thought on Jesus, the greatest gift of all. He is so amazing and He is the delight of my heart!
In the picture, there is a green package with a tag that says: To YOU From ME. My youngest son, Chris, gave that to me when he was in third grade. Every year around Christmas, I would faithfully set it under our tree. One year as I was putting it under the tree, I felt something inside it! I quickly opened it and saw the cutest macaroni angel ever! <See it hanging above the manger?!> Thirteen years after Chris had given me this gift, I realized there was something inside it! All along, I had thought it was just a decorative package to put under the tree.
At first, I was dismayed and I said, “Bud! Why didn’t you tell me there was something inside it? I’m so sorry.” Like he does, he just shrugged and said, “I don’t know, Mom. It’s no big deal.”
It was a huge deal to me, thinking I may have hurt his heart by not opening the gift he’d made for me.
Sometimes, we’re like that with God’s gift, Jesus. We accept Him and believe on Him, but don’t take the time to get to know Him. To my sorrow, I spent years only acknowledging Him when I needed something. I never took time to sit and get to know Him. <See my post “Know Him” May 24, 2015>
I’ve known my husband for over 33 years and I am still learning things about him because we spend time together and talk. We have a relationship.
To really get to know Jesus, we need to open the gift of our relationship with Him, spending time with Him…..talking and listening, asking….becoming one with Him.
How would I have known the joy, delight and the completeness of knowing Him if I never “opened” the gift of a relationship with Him?
Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well:
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
“Whoever drinks of this water (from the well) will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” <John 4:10,13 and 14 NKJV>
He is my life! I love Him, depend on Him, count on Him to show me how to love and the more time I spend with Him, the more I know Him.
My prayer for you, dear ones, is that 2017 will be a wonderful year spent getting to know God’s perfect gift, Jesus, and to know that you are one with Him. Amen!
