The Precious Present

  The stockings were hung by the chimney with care.....

Decorating the tree is  equivalent to opening a treasure chest of yesterdays.

As I placed each ornament on the tree, my hand touched a memory that took me back to an earlier time; our first Christmas together, the baby’s first Christmas, ornaments from places we visited. 

At Christmas we tend to look back, become nostalgic, sometimes sad. Our thoughts can also jump to the future with worry and uncertainty. In all this we can miss today, the gift God gives us this present day. Yesterday is behind us, tomorrow will take care of itself. Today is a gift. When I was a teenager, I was given the gift of a book The Precious Present. I pull this book off my shelf this time of year to remind myself where I need to be. There is a beautiful line in it that reads:

 “The present is who you are

 just the way you are....

right now.

And it is precious. 

You are precious.” 

Christ is also our Precious Present for He is our gift today and for all our days through eternity.  This Christmas I hope you will unwrap God’s gifts to you through your faith in Jesus Christ. And may the Peace of Christ reign in your heart today. In the true sense of the Hebrew word for peace, shalom, may you have completeness and a quietness of the soul.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—Ephesians 2:7-9
 

Grace and Peace this present day,