If you had to choose from all the gifts you have received in your lifetime, which gift would you rate as the best gift ever? Impossible to chose you might say! But I do remember such an occasion when I felt exactly that way.
It was a Sunday morning on September the seventh. I was sitting close to the front of the church while Joyce Harville, the co-pastor at First Christian, was leading the service. As is the custom of many churches Joyce was announcing those who had birthdays in the coming week. My name was one of those who were mentioned. I was in church, but my heart, mind and soul was somewhere else. I was consumed in grief; Madalon, my best friend and wife, had passed away on Wednesday the third of September. And then it happened! Two young girls, Olivia and Amelia came up to me and said, “Happy birthday grandbob, we love you!”
More than likely, as time goes by, there will be other instances when my list will expand depending on life’s circumstances, but as Mary felt, in response to what the angel shared when she received the news of the baby she would be carrying , “Mary treasured all these things in her heart.”
I am sure if you would look back on your life there are many gifts you have received that are just like this one I have shared.
We all have one “Best Gift Ever” in common and that is Jesus, God’s gift to us. As we strive to practice the presence of God in our lives, think of all the wonderful gifts we have received through the on-going relationship we have with Christ. Thank God for those gifts and treasure them in your heart.
God Bless,
Bobby