Do NOT wait until Christmas to open

As a child, it is likely we can all identify with the numerous times we had heard or read "Do not open till Christmas".  I know for me it left an excitement of anticipation.  It leads us down the road of wonder.   I wonder what it is, I wonder who it's from, I wonder what is so special about it that directions are attached to NOT open.

Each year I prepare for the Christmas season with every one's wish list.  While I do find joy in fulfilling the lists it brings me greater joy in making a gift.  The thought behind my gifts are really nothing extraordinary.  After my Children were grown and married I made them each a shadow box, in it I put their christening outfits and a picture of them wearing it and then wrote what they meant to me.  Another year I took my sons Old rusted Tonka truck and sanded it down and repainted it again and attached a picture of him when he was a child sitting in his truck.  Sappy but that's me and I know that it means a lot to them. 

This year the lists came in and no one had 1. A sappy, sentimental gift from mom.  BUT I know if I don't have one they will miss it.  These are the gifts I am most excited for them to open.  These are the ones that are worthy of the "Do not open till Christmas tag". 

After I decided what I was going to do- (sorry can't tell you yet) I took great joy in the doing.  Whenever I work on these projects I am filled with an overwhelming love.  Recently I was working on them and I thought about God and his gifts.  I thought how ironic that our gift giving is so secretive, and His is so filled with promise.

I started thinking about the season and the true meaning and I wondered how many people do not know of that promise.  The Bible is full of verses about His Gifts, yet for many it stays closed like those, "Do not open till Christmas" gifts. Some May bring him out on the Sunday before Christmas when they go to a services to "get in the spirit" or choose a church to go for a Christmas eve services because it is tradition.  At Christmas dinner they may even say a prayer. At the end of the day He is quietly packed away in the "Do not open till Christmas box" to be opened again the following year. 

I felt sad that the greatest gift anyone of us can ever receive is a gift not always accepted.

The bible is filled with Gifts from our father;
 
James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.

Romans 12:6
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them
         

 Romans 8: 38-39 (The gift here is so obvious, NOTHING can separate us from the gift of His love)
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

      Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (The ultimate gift, He gave his life for us.)

These gifts here, they are not meant to be unopened until Christmas.  There is excitement in getting HIS gifts everyday. 

Accept this gift with a card attached "Please open before Christmas".