Still, there is one kind of gift that is especially powerful and moving for me. It's the gift that is made. When someone goes out of the way to make something and give it to me, I treasure it. My friends, the Holland's, gave me a really cool gift this Christmas that was both handmade AND filled with words - like a double blessing. It was a mug, but personalized with words and phrases that they thought described me.I especially cherish gifts like that.
So, this morning, I'm driving to an early Saturday morning meeting with a PCC leader, and on the way there God and I are talking. Truth be told, I'm doing most of the talking. I was praying for some friends and then I was praying for our church and asking God to give us some very specific gifts. I entered Rt.288 from Rt.711 and as I accelerated and headed south, the sun was coming up to my left. That particular spot is a high place and I could see the haze below me and then the landscape rise up again way out in the distance - some of you know the place I'm talking about. I've driven it hundreds, maybe thousands of times.
But this morning, as I prayed for material blessings, and the sun hit my face and the breathtaking view hit my conscious, this thought hit my soul: God went out of his way to make all of this for all of us. This wasn't a gift that he bought for us. It's a gift he made for us. It was like God was saying to me, "Hey, Brian, if you'll shut up from your long list of requested gifts for a minute, I want to show you the gift I already made for you."
"For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him." Psalm 103:11
God never stops giving gifts to us - gifts he made and thought of us while he knit them together. The people in your life, the ground under your feet, the air you breath. Join me, while we list our requests to Him, in pausing long enough to see the gifts He's already delivered to us.
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