The Un-opened Present

 This time of year is so joyous and happy yet also hard for many. It is a time of parties and family and gatherings. In this time there are some that are missing from that equation. Loss, either through death or maybe just someone moved on, moved away, loss is loss and can create grief. 

To live is to grieve. Grief is the price of Love....We are surrounded by it. It is part of the ebb and flow of life. 

As I look around I see more than grief, I see busy. We busy ourselves and we often miss the little things of life that are so precious. Busy, busy, busy, life blows by. Here you sit in the dark living in the what if's and why's.

I see apathy. We hide. We turn on Netflix and binge watch whatever we can in our few hours of being off of work or our 'downtime'. We shut out and turn off the world and revert into ourselves looking for that peace of comfort we find in nothingness in our dark bedroom searching for peace through the TV.

Before long we are looking for light. We beg for even the light that the cracks let in. We sit in darkness and live our life through the prisms of light created in all the broken. We live there, we learn to survive. 

Just surviving at Christmas though is not the life you were designed for. Lying on the floor at the feet of Jesus over and over begging for grace and mercy is not what you are meant for. He wants you to get up and embrace him, his hands are outstretched though you make the choice to get up. 

You make that choice. He never forces...

You must choose to live a life of fellowship with him, DAYS to walk in the cool of the day with him. 

NIGHTS, he shows you his presence when fear or grief or both haunt you, like bad dreams or a nightmare or when you realize this nightmare life is your current reality. He is there. He never promised to take the hard times of life away but he did promise he would be by your side, holding you, helping you, even carrying you through the hard times. He is with you always. 

So as you celebrate this Holiday season in your way. Remember that one present given to us, the gift of life through Jesus Christ and not just life with breath in it, but authentic abundant life if you will only submit to HIM as your Lord and Savior, and walk into a NEW life with HIM. 

CHOOSE today to open that un-opened present under your tree, in your life, the gift that just sits there for you, Jesus Christ and life eternal in HIM. 

If you already submitted to Him and you claim his love and life in Him, and you just cannot find that JOY then remember what JOY is JESUS, OTHERS, SELF. Your missing element is doing for others. Adopt a family, do something for them, bake cookies and take to someone, help someone, encourage someone. Pour into another or others and stop focusing on SELF. 

We are all just looking for that STAR to light up our life. Be that light, and in the process of being a light to others before long you also find that STAR in the sky and are on your way to Bethlehem to find this Newborn baby that promises life. The baby that was a gift of life to us, You can have that life. You CAN live abundantly through all the mess. It's all a matter of perspective. 

For the wages of sin are death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord -Romans 6:23

Living without HIM is empty broken, sad, dark. It is void and always trying to fill a void, it is oppression, and fear, and loneliness and on and on... but the free gift of God is living in HIM with HIM, each and every day.