The Greatest Gift: As the clock has now struck midnight and 2017 is packed up and put away, I wanted to take a moment and share the three greatest gifts I received this past Christmas season.
Gift 1: The first gift was one of the first I received. It was a hand-made scarf my son Caleb knitted for me. He has made me something pretty much every year now and each of them are so precious. Whether a coaster made from wood for my coffee mug complete with phone holder or clay pen holder, each has it’s own special place in my heart. So my scarf I wear with pride. Not only that, but it is also surprisingly warm too! Wearing it the other day brought my thoughts toward God and what he must be thinking as he views our gifts. I think he views our attempts at loving others, doing his work, seeking him first, and just tying to make it through life, I see now he views each of those things just like I do Caleb’s scarf. Sure it’s not perfect, frayed in some areas, not all the same lengths, but all I see is his heart and it is enough. Know that when you attempt something for God this new year, however imperfect and regardless of whether you fall flat on your face, know he beams with pride and joy.
Gift 2: Enter the big brother. So a Nintendo Switch founds its way into our family this Christmas. The boys’ favorite game so far has easily been MarioKart 8. In our family Caleb is more of the gamer while Daniel enjoys watching and providing hints and clues for solving puzzles from the side lines. But with MarioKart they can both play together and compete against each other along with 10 computer opponents. This is all fine and good except that well, Caleb is more of the gamer, and he pretty much wins every time, mainly because he plays more and has more experience. Well Daniel finally wanted to play but alone because he had a guess that while he normally lost to his brother, he could probably beat the computer. So one afternoon he wanted to play just by himself to test his theory. Of course he was right and soon we had an issue on our hands as Caleb felt like he was being unfairly excluded. I tried to reason with him about how much he had played versus Daniel, but he would hear none of it. Finally he and I had a long discussion about what it must feel like to walk in Daniel’s shoes having an older brother who always wins at everything you play together, who’s bigger, faster, stronger, and further ahead in pretty much everything. We talked about how maybe his best chance at getting his brother to want to play with him was to give him some time by himself to just learn in his own way without the added pressure of losing to his brother. He was still entirely upset and believed this was not fair. I left it at that and chalked it up to in one ear out the next.
The next day arrived and found the two boys playing together once again. Much to my surprise this time when I walked in the room, Caleb and Daniel were talking strategy and Caleb was proceeding to hang back in the game and protect his little brother, taking out opponents that tried to take Daniel out. It was the sweetest and most precious thing I have seen. And I have never been more proud as a father. For just a flash, I saw a snapshot of how they may take care of and look out for each other one day. It was also confirmation that those conversations you have where you are unsure whether they are truly being heard and will ever have any real impact, do indeed matter and are worth every bit of the effort.
Gift 3: Gift number three was possibly my favorite. All three of us love lego’s, but Caleb has moved on from them a little. He no longer rushes to put them together, but Daniel and I still sit together and work building whatever his newest set is. Later on Christmas morning found us doing just that. The day before we worked on my newest gift, The Beatles Yellow Submarine lego set. Ever since I received this gift, the boys have been randomly asking our Amazon Alexa Echo to play Yellow Submarine. So as we built Daniel and I listened to that album. But after a while it gets into a lot of instrumental on the sound track and so eventually I hollered out for Alexa to change it to another of my favorite stations, Bethel Music. It is comprised almost entirely of worship music and it wasn’t a couple of songs in before I found myself singing along while we built together. At some point during one of the songs I begin to notice Daniel was singing along. I didn’t even know he knew the lyrics to this worship song at all. I even dropped out altogether and he sang along all by himself. He was singing of God’s love and kindness, provision and protection. For me it was a sweet, sweet moment. Later that afternoon I dropped them off at their mom’s so they could celebrate Christmas with her and decided to go for a run to clear my head. It was during this run that God reminded me of this moment and spoke to my spirit of the gift that it was from him to me. More than anything in this world I want my boys to know the God I’ve met, the one who has been so present and real to me these past 9 months. But it’s always a struggle to really know at all how and if you are really doing anything to connect them to God. But this Christmas I got a gift and it was God saying to me, “see I’m showing myself to them through you my son, keep doing what you are doing and loving as you love. I will not leave them and I am there with you all.”
So there you have it, my three favorite Christmas gifts this year, my own versions of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, each fit for a king and truly blessed to have been bestowed upon me. As you leap into 2018, look out for the sweet gifts each day. They are there, sometimes hidden away under the circumstances and trials of this life. But if you can see past those things that try to blind us, these sweet gifts of daily life and connection to God and each other are around us. Take them with you this day…give some away. Blessing upon you as you walk into 2018.
From The Whale's Belly 