Word
Jesus is the reason for all seasons... THE WHITE ENVELOPE It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas -- oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one of them could have won," he said. "They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them." Mike loved kids -- all kids-- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition -- one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us. May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.
God Bless!
09/06: Remember being truly in love with someone. Not lustful, but IN LOVE! Maybe you are there right now. Wanting to be with that person every minute, missing them so much that when you are apart you ache inside, wanting to know all there is about them, what they have done all day, what their dreams are, you love that person so much you just want to be attached to them physically, emotionally and spiritually. Remember how enormous and wonderfully overwhelming that felt or may feel.
Well, that is just a small picture of how great God's love is for you. Romans 5:5 tells us ”God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us." The Holy Spirit, yes, God's Spirit, He poured Himself into each one of us. Poured, not measured, and not held back. He loves us so very much! Sometimes when we memorize scripture, it is in our head but not always in our heart. Such as John 3:16 "For God so loved the world (that's all of us) that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever (that is any of us) believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." He, God, loves the world. Enormous in itself that He would love us. Think about it...being in love, loving someone with all your heart, with everything you have; then remember what it is like to be rejected by the one you love. You would have done anything for that person, you gave him/her all that you had to give, yet for them it was not enough. Remember the hurt, the heartache, the pain, the anger. Sometimes even the torment by seeing that person with someone else. It is awful; it feels as though you'll never get past it, the worst time in your life, at that moment.
Well now, think of our Father God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. God loves us so much, so much, yet daily we reject Him. We tell Him what He has given us is not enough. Worse, that who He is is not enough! He pours His love into our hearts; yet we turn to another. He loves us so much that He sent His Son to die for us so that we can be with Him. The Son in whom He loves and is well pleased. The Son, the one and only, who never rejected God, never sinned in any way. That Son is whom He placed here on earth and on the cross to die for us; to cleanse us from sin so that we may enter the gates of heaven; to redeem us from the enemy; to heal us from all disease and sickness; to protect us. Yet we tell Him it is not enough. And this Son, Jesus Christ, went along with this plan. He came, he walked, he taught, he healed, he redeemed, he brought to life those who were dead; physically and spiritually. Jesus was in the beginning with God. John 1:1-3 "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." John 1:14a "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Jesus loves the world so much that he made his dwelling among us and then he let them nail him to the cross. He did this even after being in the Garden of Gethsemane where he under went great stress as to what was about to take place. Some think his thoughts were of the beatings, the humility, the pain, the suffering, death, but it was much deeper than that. Imagine how you feel when you have sinned and God shed's light on that sin. You feel shame, disappointment in self, the acknowledgement of how it hurt someone or a situation, how it disappointed them. It felt miserable! Jesus took ALL our sins, every last stinking one of them and he felt it all, the weight of the sins of the world. Yet even worse than that, worse than the physical pain, worse than the emotional pain was the spiritual pain of being separated from his Father, God. Remember the heartache of being separated from the one you love. Jesus did all this for us. Jesus took all our sins upon himself, allowed himself to be apart from God, so that we can come to the Father as pure, sinless, righteous heirs. Yes, sons and daughters of the Most High God. Yes, he came to die, to be the blood atonement; the requirement of God for forgiveness. Life is in the blood, you give life to receive life. One life for many lives. Jesus did this because he loves the Father and also because he loves us. How, how, how can we love another? How can we turn from Him? How can we not look to Him first and in all we do? Why are we not running into His arms with a heart that says "I cannot get enough of you!"? God says, "Turn to me, run to me, my child. I am here, I am waiting for you! I love you!"
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