God's Gift To You

I babysit my granddaughter Clara every weekday and the times that I have an appointment and can’t be home, my husband takes over the responsibility. I don’t look forward to what I will find when I return home. He thinks it’s clean, I usually think it’s a mess, and I know I’ll have a lot to do when I return. It must be a guy thing, bless his heart~ I’m very thankful he tries. 
On this particular day both granddaughters were home and I was prepared to get at it again when I stepped inside, but when I walked in my eyes were immediately drawn to a very large present wrapped in bright blue snowman paper. On the top was written in bold black marker “To Charisse From Santa”. It appeared Santa had some help with the wrapping from a little 4 year old and 6 year old. It was completely out of place and didn’t match the neatly stacked, matching gifts placed perfectly under our tree, but it made me smile and I forgot about my apprehension over a messy home. The next day when Clara arrived she walked right up to that gift and said “we helped Grandpa wrap this. It’s a watch.” Yep. 😂 Well, I had wanted this particular watch for the past year and my husband got it without my knowing and hid it in a very large box to surprise me. I would’ve never known what it was, until Clara told me. Finding out didn’t ruin it for me. Even though I had seen a picture of the watch and read about it and even knew I would love it, I had not opened it and physically put it on and received it. 
This reminds me so much of God’s amazing Gift to us. There may be some of you who fear that God only sees the mess of your lives and could never love you or forgive you, but that’s not the case. Because His Son died on the cross, His Gift of a home in heaven is there waiting just for you~ with your name written in bold letters. He doesn’t look at any of the mess, He only sees His precious Gift and wants you to receive it. There may be others of you who know all about the Gift. You’ve read about it in the Bible or maybe even had someone tell you all about it, just like Clara. You've seen its amazing picture of grace on others lives but never really received it as your own. And then there are others who look at the Gift and feel as if it would be out of place in your lives, that it wouldn’t fit in and you completely miss the beauty that’s wrapped inside. You might even be tempted to push it aside and try not to think about it, or hide from it’s truth (just like I tried to hide the bright blue snowmen amidst my pretty Christmas wrappings). And so it sits, wrapped and waiting but never opened. 
When Christmas morning finally came I asked Clara if I could open the gift. The smile on her face was priceless. Friends, you will never know the joy that God’s Gift brings until you open your heart, ask Him to come in and receive His Gift as your own. Stories about it, pictures of it, apprehension over it~none of that matters until you receive it. Open Gods precious gift to you~ forgiveness through His Son for every sin we ever committed or ever will commit and then experience the true joy such a Gift can bring. There can be no better way to end this Christmas season and begin a new year and a new life. Jesus is God’s Gift to you. Your smile will be priceless.
John 3:16
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