What A Gift

It has been such a long time since I've written on here. Between schoolwork and the business of everything it's been hard to find time to blog. I don't know how many people keep up with this anyway, but so many things have traveled through my head that I wish I could write them all down right now, right here.

I am officially finished my first semester of college. It seemed like the longest AND quickest time to pass in my life. I love being back at home...just resting, not having to worry about schoolwork, and simply enjoying the spontaneity of this break. Christmas came and went so quickly. It's amazing how we work so hard to get everything ready for one day and then it's gone in a flash. I think Christmas Eve was the best day. I spent most of my time at the church helping out with all the services. I've really enjoyed these Light of the World sermons, especially when Christmas is involved. During the Christmas eve service Joe talked about darkness versus light and defined them both. He described darkness as anything that hinders us from moving closer to God and enjoying Him. That can be anything and everything. It's amazing how easy it is to fall into darkness. Even as I do this Reset experiment with the middle and high schoolers I find myself so consumed with the things I am doing that I pretty much ignore God. It's not that I'm doing it on purpose more than it is just a habit that I've made. The whole purpose of this experiment, however, is to break that habit and form a new one by taking that reminder and listening for God consciously...and I think it's working. Anyway, Joe also described light as the remarkable discovery that we find life through a personal relationship with Jesus. It's so interesting how as a believer I can still experience many times of darkness and days of light. This relationship that I've been offered in Jesus is a gift...something I can choose to be a part of or not. Something that really struck me though was when Joe talked about this gift. He reminded me how a gift is always something that is free, and to say the words "free gift" together is to be redundant. He talked about how there is something in everyone that is fascinated by gifts. . .and it's so true! Who doesn't enjoy a nice gift? We all love them! And the best part is that we never give money back to the person who buys a gift for us...that would defeat the purpose of a gift. We aren't worthy of any of the gifts we receive, they are just given with grace. For God to send His son to die on the cross in place of us is His "free gift" to us. God took advantage of our endearment for gifts and gave us just that, a preciously wrapped gift in the form of a baby, so that when we really unwrap the entire thing, we see just how much we love it, and are forever grateful for it. I hope you were able to unwrap the gift of baby Jesus this Christmas and meditate on its value. God sending His very own son to this earth with the very purpose of His death in mind from the start is love. And for Him to show up, not as this mighty man, with a big and bold entrance (which He could have very well done), but in the form of a weak, innocent baby in a little stable in Bethlehem is genius. Pure genius.