“Comfort, comfort my people,” says your God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her sad days are gone and her sins are pardoned.”
Isaiah 40:1-2a NLT
Christmas is a time for gathering as families, for eating and celebrating together and for exchanging gifts. In our house all present lists were long ago banned by Jayne. She’s a great gift giver and loves quietly to discern through the year what the people she loves the most would enjoy. She requires no hints or helps, but unnervingly hits a home run every year. Of course, this raises the stakes for the rest of us, since Jayne most certainly expects us to discern and strike the same home run when it comes to getting her gifts! I’ve come to love this process, where once I feared it. I have also done pretty well, only messing up once that I recall, and even then Jayne was more than gracious. I have also found it quite liberating as I’ve ventured into choosing clothes for her without her advice or involvement, all well-received.
God knows the precise gift we each need. Initially it is salvation, itself the gift of friendship with the creator of everything that is, including you and me.
I’ve been married to Jayne for nine years. Despite the familiarity total immersion in a relationship creates, we both still get excited at meeting up when separated. There is each evening a sense of anticipation as I await Jayne’s return home from work. I seek to keep discovering more about Jayne and regularly falling in love all over again. Love is organic and requires nurture if it is to survive.
QUESTION
Is your friendship with God-loving and fresh, or formal and stale?
PRAYER
God, I want to give myself afresh to you this Christmas. May our walk be characterised by love and commitment.
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