Love’s Umbrella Gifts
There are MANY gifts that come under the ‘umbrella’ of love. Gifts, that if it weren’t for the love of God, we would not have. The work of His Son is just one piece of love’s umbrella gifts.
As I’m writing, it is Christmas Eve at my house. Because I want this to be to you for Christmas, I’m posting it today. Why? Because He LOVES you and I want to share that with you.
While I was thinking about all the gifts God has given us, I started trying to put them ALL down. NO WAY I can accomplish that! There are too many for me to even try and list them all. But I can just about bank on the fact that we ALL see His gift of His Son as the GREATEST gift He could ever give. That gift cost Him dearly! Not at the moment of Jesus’ birth but throughout time immortal.
Before God uttered the first words of creation, He KNEW the cost. He KNEW man would sin and it would require His Word made flesh to redeem us. And, YES, He loved us that much that He STILL said those words and completed all of creation, including giving man free will. He could have skipped the whole problem if He would have just skipped that one ‘ingredient’ in our creation. You came anyway!
“Love” didn’t stand alone as a gift. Because of His love, He also included mercy, grace, and forgiveness. It takes these gifts in operation together to bring us salvation. It is through these that we receive reconciliation and redemption. And, under the full umbrella of love we receive His righteousness. These are the gifts that rested in the body of Jesus that night as He lay wrapped in swaddling clothes.
As an infant, I don’t know if He had the understanding of all that His life would entail. As God, it is possible, but as human flesh, who knows. Jesus could have said “No” at any point in time, including right before His own conception. But He never did.
He opened His eyes right after His birth and gazed into His mother’s eyes. He beheld her face and felt an immediate connection. He felt her hands gently clean Him, swaddle Him, and nurse Him. He felt her awe as she looked back at His face. He felt her love envelop Him. And He returned that love.
He felt the arms of His earthly father lift Him gently from His mother’s arms. He saw the smile of His father’s face. He felt the tenderness of his hands as he placed Him in a rough mange he had carefully converted into a safe bed.
He slept in comfort and safety as His heart heard the angels singing on the hillside. He awoke to the adoring voices of the shepherds. Their faces filled with awe as they beheld Him; the One the angels sang about.
Love enveloped Him from within and without! God’s love was never more evident than it was that day. There would be more days to come that would clearly demonstrate God’s love but this was the day that paved the way for all the rest to come. It is the day that God sent His Son to demonstrate His AMAZING LOVE to a world that was lost. The day He ‘opened His love umbrella’ to save us from what we had NO WAY of protecting ourselves from. For, from inside that umbrella, grace, mercy and forgiveness flowed.
Father God, THANK YOU for Your love! I have NO life without it. I have NO hope apart from it. Your grace, mercy, and forgiveness are what has kept me from being a greasy spot on the ground! Without them I am a dead woman. Your love gave me life. A life founded and grounded in Your love and Your word. One that You have built upon brick by brick. One filled with faith and hope because of You.
