How quickly it seems the year has gone and another Christmas approaches. In fact, in about 48 hours, it will be over. Weeks, well for some it has been months, of planning and shopping for just the right gifts to give those we love. I was thinking about gifts and what qualifies something to be a gift. Does the item have to be beautifully wrapped in a box with an elegant bow or in a creative designer bag stuffed with tissue paper? Webster’s Dictionary defines a gift as something that is given from one person to another.
A few years ago, once we acquired several grandchildren, I went to leaving off ribbons and bows from the packages. It seemed to be one more step they had to maneuver through to get to what they really wanted- the gift inside! I was remembering how my mother-in-law would insist each Christmas that every box have a bow. She would purchase the large bag of factory pre-made bows, typically 90% of them were crushed after being stuffed in the attic for a year, but she insisted we place the bow in the center of each box. Everyone had a bow on their package and who cared if it was crushed, what we were after was the gift inside!
As I have reflected back on this year, I have asked myself the question, “What are the things in my life that have been gifts, but yet could not be stuffed in a box or bag?” In my mind, I began to formulate a long list of those things. Then I began to think about the things from this past year that would qualify as actual gifts, those given in a bag or a box, and I could remember very few. What are the gifts treasured from the past year. Well, some were obvious to me, others were things that at the time, didn’t seem like gifts, but later were realized to be a gift.
My List:
· My corner chair, which has been placed in three different corners this past year. God has given me gifts each and every morning that I have been willing to get out of bed and meet with Him.
· Mark, who is showing me how to walk uprightly and in full trust of a God he loves and desires to serve with his whole heart. The early mornings spent talking with him about the things God had revealed to each of us that morning, as we met with Him.
· The places God has allowed us to live in this past year, teaching me to be as Paul said, “content in whatever state I am in”.
· Scriptures God lead me to that came at just the right moment and met the need for encouragement, divine instruction and renewed hope.
· Our visits to Dallas to see Kelly, Robbie, Jake and Josh. The time celebrating their birthdays, watching Jake play baseball, playing hide-n-seek, and Jake and Josh’s help as Mimi as I painted the room of their soon coming little sister, Lila. What fun and really, the mess was minimal!
· Dinners with Angela and family.
· Pop and Mimi days and nights with Will, Annalise, Avery and Ainsley Kate.
· Time spent with young women that God has given me the privilege of mentoring and having an impact on their lives.
· Trips to Nashville and Oklahoma City to visit family, which becomes more and more of a treasure as I get older.
· The time given us to rest at a friend’s lake house- what a gift!!
· A birthday luncheon given by my friends where around the table were women God has used their lives to bless and greatly challenge me.
· Watching God work in the lives of young women who for a season struggled with past issues/sins in their lives.
· Watching God answer prayer and give the gift of a baby through natural birth/adoption to several young women.
· Precious time with my iron-sharpening iron friends.
· Hours spent with two widow friends- what a gift the faithfulness of their walk with the Lord and their marriages have been to me!
· Calls or text from my daughters checking in.
· Conversations on the phone with grandchildren.
· The forming of a ministry God ordained for us and the blessing of the board He provided to give us guidance.
· Family, friends and others (including members of a High School football team) God provided to help us make two moves in five months.
· Numerous cake orders God provided in order to put money back in our cash envelope.
· Opportunity to attend two conferences and share about the ministry and be able to tell our story.
· Being a part of a once a month prayer group of godly women who challenge me spiritually.
· Birth of Lila Reese, what an amazing gift the birth of another grandchild!
· The leadership God has provided to come alongside me in the ministry.
· Cards and emails that have come at just the right time.
· Money that showed up in the mail, given as a result of the moving of the spirit on the hearts of His children.
· Books of stamps given me from a widow friend in order for me to send notes of encouragement and pay bills.
· $100 a month given to us by friends desiring to help.
· The $350 coming every month from a couple who felt God telling them to send it- paying total rent increase after the last move.
· The writing of two semesters of curriculum for the Secrets ministry- a true gift for I am well aware that I cannot put two words together!
· Mornings walking with a friend and the sweet conversations we have had.
· Strength and stamina given after long nights of typing books and writing devotionals.v
· The gift of God waking me in the night with a devotional thought and getting me out of bed- miracle in itself!
· The gift card to Penny’s Department Store that a lady at church walked up and gave me, stating that she felt God wanted her to give it to me.
· Mark’s condition, for it is what continually drives me to the Father. It has taken these five years to come to the place of seeing it as a gift. Truly, it is what God has used to put me on my knees on a daily basis.
I could go on and on. I think you are seeing what God was showing me as I reflected back on the many gifts I have received this year- many were not beautifully wrapped in a box with an elegant bow or in a designer bag stuffed with tissue. They were displayed in the lives of others and given at the direction of the Holy Spirit.
A few weeks ago Mark’s niece and her boyfriend came from Oklahoma City to visit. They came bearing what they considered a gift for Mark, his mother’s rolator walker. She is so feeble that she no longer has need of it. As they arrived, I thanked them and promptly heaved it atop some of the boxes in the garage. A month after their visit, Mark said he wanted to try out the walker around the house, so I got it down for him. I didn’t expect the flood of emotions that followed. Watching him come to the point of needing a walker was painful. I struggled for two weeks. I found it depressing and sad that he had progressed to this point. He knew I was struggling and offered to put it back in the garage, but I insisted that it would be okay.
God is amazing in that He can help us see things that to the human eye are in no way a gift, but yet in His eyes they are absolutely a gift to us. Tonight Mark was sitting and folding a load of clothes for me. After several minutes, I noticed he was gone. I called to him and he said he was in the bedroom putting away the clothes he had folded. I knew he couldn’t carry the basket, due to his inability to stay balanced, so I went to the bedroom to see how he was accomplishing this task. As I entered the room, I saw the basket resting on the seat of the walker, and with one hand he was holding onto the walker and with his other hand, he was placing clothing into drawers.
God woke me tonight to show me that the walker that brought so much pain to me was actually a gift to Mark. It enabled him to have freedom and self-worth. He could once again participate in helping around the house. His condition has robbed him of helping me with so many facets of life. This walker has enabled him to be a helper to me once again. I am no longer depressed or sad about the walker; God has helped me to see that it is truly a gift to Mark and therefore a gift to me!
Take time this Christmas to reflect back on the gifts God has brought to you this past year, not wrapped in a box with an elegant bow or in a designer bag stuffed with tissue, but in the loving hands of your heavenly Father.
Father, how grateful I am for the gifts you have showered on me this year. Gifts so precious, that their value cannot be weighed on a scale or determined by a scanner. Help me to have spirit eyes to see the gifts you lavish on me each and every day. May I have a heart of gratitude for each and every one.
“Every good thing and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.” James 1:17