A promised gift Some gifts are unexpected. Some gifts surprise us. I am a small man, with small thoughts. Simple thoughts. I don't have big plans. I don't get a thrill out of power or money or stuff. I just try to live a simple life. I work hard. I pay my bills. I do my best to lend a hand to those who need a little help. I do my best to stay out of trouble. I don't go looking for the spotlight, and I certainly don't consider myself to be elite by anyones measurement. I am just a simple guy. That is what makes it so crazy. So unbelievable. Why would angels come to me. Why would God send his Heavenly host to talk to a bunch of shepherds. To announce to me the birth of His son. The birth of the messiah. Certainly the messengers were supposed to go to Jerusalem. Perhaps they got lost. There is no way they mistook us for royalty. We were in a field, not a palace. And we were watching sheep, not tending to the affairs of government. You really can't make this stuff up. Imagine what it was like for me. What were you doing for most of this week? Maybe sitting in a office. Or Perhaps you were running errands, or getting in that last minute shopping. Imagine, if this last Wendesday night, as you walk out of store, with your dog food in the cart, and all of a sudden the sky opens up and in front of you is an Angel of the Lord proclaiming to you that there is a new King, just born, in a garage in Lakewood. And as soon as that Angel stops, an entire army of Angels start singing. It was the craziest thing. Why would God choose us. Why would he send word to us. To be honest, I did not have much time to think about why. You see when someone comes from Heaven to tell you to go somewhere and see something, you go and you look. And that is what we did. We went, and low and behold, there was the baby just the way the Angel's said it would be. But not at all as you would expect. I guess as I reflect on how God works, it lines up with my own life. So many promises of God have been fulfilled, and yet fulfilled in the most unlikely fashion. God promises he will care for us. He promises that he we protect us, and watch over us, and lead us and guide us, and He does! He does! But if were to script it, would you expect Noah to float to safety, with a pair of every animal onboard? Would you expect Old man Abraham to have a son? Would you expect Joseph to go from rotting in jail, to chief of staff in the Pharaoh administration? Would you expect the stuttering Mo-mo-mo-moses to demand the release of an entire race of slaves? How about the battle plan given to Joshua - march and sing, march and sing, blow trumpets on three, 1, 2, 3! And the walls came tumbling down. That is how is was. All my doubts. All my questions. All my thoughts of how crazy those old stories sounded. Those walls between me and God came tumbling down. As I looked in that manger, and I saw that baby, I knew it was true. I knew the whole thing was true. We all long for that. We all long for a moment of clarity. And once we get it, it changes everything. If God is real. If his promised gift is real. Then God has given us his very best. And as the joy wells up in our hearts, what can we give in return? What will we do? The very best thing we can do is to give Him our hearts. I know this is hard. Our hearts take a pounding in this world. We trust in people, only to be let down. We "put ourselves out there," only to be hurt, abused, forgotten or ignored. So when I say that you should love God, that you should trust God, that you should live a life of complete abandonment, following God, loving Him with all your heart and mind and soul. I know you may have doubts. I know you may think it too good to be true. I was just like you, till I walked into a barn, and saw God's promised gift. Trust me, its true, and if you give him your heart, he will never, ever break a promise.
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