“Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable Gift.” – 2 Corinthians 9:15

Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone hadtheir presents wrapped and their stockings hung with care.  I know I’m ready!  I’ve put a lot of thought into the gifts I’ve chosen for my people, and I can’t wait to see their faces on Christmas morning.  As Mother Theresa said, “It’s not how much we give, but how much love we put into giving,” so I put my heart into the things I pick.  But truthfully, giving and receiving love is the greatest gift of all.

It’s not been that long ago I lived a life devoid of love.  My family loved me, but I kept them at a safe distance, so they didn’t really know me.  And while I would have told you I loved them, I truly only loved my addiction.  Two things consumed my life, me and keeping me high.  I was a dead man walking.  Dead things don’t have love to give.

If Christmas is about the gift of Jesus, then my first Christmas happened on a hot summer night in a jail cell in Florida.  Devoid of hope, I reached out to receive the gift of salvation He’d been offering me my whole life.  And what a Gift He’s been!  Wow!  One tug at that bow and Love came rushing in, and addiction had to flee.  I crossed from death to life, and now, I can’t help but love people.  It’s so weird.  It doesn’t matter to me what size, shape, color, religion, sexuality, or gender identity; I am completely enamored by people.  It feels like the Gift that lives inside me is trying to come out of my chest and hug everyone.

I was thinking last night of all the things my Gift of Love has given to me.  He gave me salvation.  To me, that means I’m saved from selfishness and meaninglessness in this life and have eternity with Him in the next.  He brought me from death to life and healed me from my addiction and the brain damage it had caused.  He restored my mental health and gave me freedom, love, joy, family, a home, a career, and the only stability I’ve ever known.  He’s also given me self-acceptance and self-respect, which is the polar opposite of the selfishness and self-loathing that used to consume me.  Truthfully, I don’t even know me anymore because He’s the best part of me.  Every day with Him is like Christmas because of the love He’s shed into my heart.

And that’s a love He longs to share with each of you.  Jesus said of a man who thought he had it all, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?”  If you wake Christmas morning and have everything you ever wanted under your tree but never experience Jesus, your life will stay meaningless and devoid of true hope.

In closing, I want to share a Christmas poem by Robert Louis Stevenson:  Loving Father,help us remember the birth of Jesus, that we may share in the song of the angels, the gladness of the shepherds, and worship of the wise men. Close the door of hate and open the door of love all over the world. Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings and teach us to be merry with clear hearts. May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children, and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus’ sake.  Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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