Isn’t this great! Can you remember a more exhilarating Christmas??
Terrific! Wonderful! And so very PALTRY on our part!
We gift the Lord our God with our fears, our unforgiveness, our idolatries, and He gives us – Christmas! Christmas every day that we live, and forever!
Oh, yes, these are paltry gifts, but not to Him. These are the “treasures” He has longed to receive. After all, could we give Him our righteousness, our wisdom, our compassion? We have none, except for what He has placed in our hearts, ours to keep.
But those other items … those things we surrender and slough off, crucify and offer up to Him, those are the presents He has longed to receive. Bitternesses, unkindness, false-speaking – horrid presents, but He receives them and knows what to do with them.
Today, have you even a single jealousy you might give to Him? Even a crust? I hope not, but I know my own heart. I can be savoring a jealous moment before even I realize it! Thankfully, when I do, I can tie it up, sprinkle a little “never more” glitter dust upon it, and send it into His safe keeping.
It really is safe keeping, the place where He puts our jealousies. He recognizes lack and loss and desire in our hearts, and if we will be faithful in the surrendering, He will be faithful in filling the empty places, and always with good, and if we will recognize and appreciate it, yes, even with Himself.
Today, just now, I pause to consider … Father, am I jealous of anyone, anywhere? Is there anything You have given to another or done for them that I covet? Is there anything they have acquired for themselves that makes me envious? There may be, but there WON’T BE, for I will rejoice in all You are and all You have done for ME! Forgive my petty jealousies, Father. I will not harbor them, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Furoshiki, Japanese art of gift-wrapping
Katorisi, by permission, Wikipedia
Marketplace Monastics 