Bring the Best Gift with You Into the New Year

Christmas isn't Christmas till it happens in your heart.

Jingle jangle, jingle jangle...is the music till ringing in your heart? The Christmas do is over. We have crossed into a new year. Time waits for no one. Whether we are ready or not, it is here - a brand new year! A fresh beginning. So where is Christ in this new year? How true many remember him, talk about him, sing of him during the hyped up year end holiday each year. I hope we haven't packed him into the closet together with the Christmas tree and ornaments.

I can't forget the moment Ashton swiftly grabbed the gift from my opened palm as I showed Nat the pretty little bronze earrings I got for my sister. He cheekily ran off with excitement as Nat ran after him. I was sure Nat would do the job well in returning me the gift so I can wrap it up nicely for a dear one on Christmas. She took the boy back to me but we only found one side of the pair. The frantic search began. The boy couldn't had possibly lost that earring. I looked high and low. Then I walked the trail from one room to the next. The anxiety increased. I crawled through the path again looking intensely for that tiny thing. Every now and then, I asked the boy, "Where is it?" and he would replied, "There!" There? Where?

You bet. I did pray. I asked God to help me find and I was pretty sure it would be found. Simply because I knew God answers prayers. Afterall, this is a Christmas gift for my sister. It is important. It is not a selfish prayer. As I searched and prayed continuously, a small voice broke through and rang in my heart that there is one gift I need to treasure most - Jesus. I should pursue Jesus endlessly like I embarked on this frantic search. And that I should present this Gift to as many people as I can because this is the best. Through this Gift comes many gifts. What you want him to be, He will be because God is "I AM WHO I AM".

I still haven't found the earring. A friend joked that she should do a treasure hunt. If she finds it, she can have the gift. My sister insisted she takes the other side anyway. So I gave it to her and I prayed she too will find the fulfillment in Christ every time she looks at the incomplete pair.

Do you have the Gift? Where is your Gift?
I hope you didn't leave him under the unkept Christmas tree or tugged in a box in the closet. Or confined in the Christmas songs, or even the Christmas story and sermon you heard.

Bring the best Gift with you into this new year and experience the fullness of his indescribable love, peace and joy.

Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! (2 Corinthians 9:15, NIV)