So, another birthday has come and gone. Birthdays seem to do that with more regularity and with increased pace, as the years pass by.

I remember when it seemed that my special day would never get there. Days, no, weeks before, I would lie awake at night and think about the friends and the cake and of course the presents that would all be welcomed with pleasure.
Let’s be truthful. A young one does not spend much time considering the years lived and the years ahead. Except that she just wants to get there. One year older that is.
A birthday is more about celebration.
I have heard some people say that we need to find as many reasons and opportunities to celebrate as we possibly can.
Celebration gives fuel to hope and who doesn’t like hope?
To instill in a child the idea, the concept, the truth of hope, is a gift bigger and better and more significant than any other.
Children don’t likely contemplate hope either. But it’s there.
Oh yes!
Hope instilled and even installed, by loving adults is worth more than anything.
I am a firm believer in tangible gifts.
Gift giving is one of the channels of my God given spiritual gift of hospitality.
I love giving gifts.
Maybe too much.
Perhaps I need to tone it down, step back a bit.
I don’t want to. (a peek into my strong willed soul)
Gifts given from a heart overflowing are a blessing to the recipients and most certainly to the giver.
For this woman, giving is a selfish thing.
I do it at least partly because I like how I feel in the preparation and the giving.
I hope you like the gift but if you don’t, I am sorry.
I received such joy in the thinking, gathering, wrapping and giving.
Secret shared…
Sometimes, after arranging and wrapping I set the gift on my table, a conspicuous place, so I can look at it. Sometimes I wrap it up early. A few days or hours.
I glance that way when passing by.
Admire the look of it.
So lovely
So pretty
So cool
I smile and continue on my way only to pass by again a few minutes later and experience the same pleasure.
Sometimes I make the gift giving into a game.
Such fun to walk the aisles of the dollar store and wait for the “lights to go on” in my head and my heart.
Most often the light goes on in my heart at the same time as my head.
Joy in giving
Joy in preparing
Just simple, plain, joy.

As I write this, the ideas, the words are darting through my mind. Oh so much to share. It might be useless prattle to some of you but to others it brings a smile of your own.
You don’t ‘get me’.
You totally see me.
It’s okay.
I am sharing me.
That’s the beauty of sharing.
Giving.
As much as it is intended to somehow bless the donee (I just learned this new word when looking for a descriptive word other than recipient)
The giving is largely about the one who gives.
I might be so bold as to say it is mostly about the giver
Again
I really hope you like it.
My heart sings when you like it.
But even if not
I have done what I am compelled to do.
Give!
Sometimes the gift can be held in hands. Tangible.
Other times it can only be grasped by the heart. Intangible.

It won’t be a surprise to you when I say

All of this gift giving talk reminds me of the very best and greatest gift ever.
Just as my boy asked the question, “how can people think there is no God”?
I say, “how indeed?”

The Giver, of every good and beautiful thing, watched and considered and said “it is good”. He looked at His creation, His gift to us and He was pleased. It brought so much pleasure to His heart. With pleasure comes a smile and it is not wrong to think that God smiled when He saw His gift.
He walked in the garden He created, amongst the beauty of the flowers and trees. He knew it was beyond human comprehension. He knew it would bring glory to Him. He created people in his image so that ultimately He would be glorified.

He knew of course, because He knows everything, that the gift he had make and given would be overshadowed by the evil that lurked. He knew that in addition to the physical beauty, this tangible gift, there would be a need for the greatest and most sacrificial gift of all time.
The intangible.
He knew that this essential gift was the only one that would matter to His creation. But because the created would not recognize their need of the gift, because they would reject the idea of the gift, many would die without accepting it.
He loved the created, the ones made in His image, so much, that He wanted to spend eternity with them.
He wanted to bless them with the ultimate gift of living forever, in His presence.
So sad that the evil one, sin personified, would separate us from life with God. The Creator.

And so
He came, as a baby who grew to be a man. The man was young. Hardly older than my boy who wonders at those who don’t believe.
And horror of horrors He willingly went to a cross.
He died on that cross.
The gift of gifts.
Given for me.
For you.
If only we will receive it. Recognize it for what it is.
The only way for us to Know and be in relationship with the Creator, the one who loves us beyond…
He loved us then and He loves us now.
Because of this great love, He died.
Friday happened.
God died for us.
Weep
Mourn
repent
And then smile and be glad.

Psalm 126:3
The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad.

He didn’t stay dead.

Sunday is coming!!