TO: MY CHILD FROM: GOD

Growing up, my entire year revolved around Christmas. I counted the days and months in relation to how close it was to December 25th. Who doesn’t like wrapped gifts under a lighted tree? Who doesn’t like all the parties and time with family? The worst day of the year was the day after Christmas. The 365 day countdown had begun again.

What if we could experience Christmas every day? What if the experience of gift-giving and gift-receiving didn’t end on Christmas? I am going to let you in on a secret: every day can be like Christmas if we begin to see every person in our lives as a gift.

1. YOU ARE A GIFT TO THE WORLD. Have you ever realized how beautiful and good you are? Your goodness and your worth have nothing to do with your accomplishments, followers on social media, or popularity. Your goodness and worth are directly connected to the fact that you have been created out of love. God created you to be his gift to the world.You are a beautiful reflection of his creative love that has never existed before and will never exist again. You are truly irreplaceable and unrepeatable. Imagine unwrapping a gift that was addressed, “To: My Child From: God.” You are a gift from God meant to be shared with others. How precious you are to the Father. How great are his plans for your life.

1. THE PEOPLE IN YOUR LIFE ARE A GIFT TO YOU. This may be a hard reality to accept. You might be thinking, “You don’t know the people in my life…” Yet, truly every single person that we encounter each day is a gift to us. How often we simply walk right by people without a second glance. How often we are absorbed more with technology than with actual conversations. How often we take for granted the people in our lives, such as our siblings, friends, and parents. It is essential that we learn the “art of encounter.” We can do this by simply putting away our phones, and paying attention to the people in front of us. What would the world be like if we took time to receive the gifts that others are? (While some do require a little more unwrapping).

Your homework: invest yourself in three sincere encounters each day. If you need inspiration for this, I encourage you to look at Brandon Stanton’s mission with Humans of New York (http://www.humansofnewyork.com/about). He has mastered the art of encountering others.The more you make of yourself a gift, and the more you accept others as gifts, your whole vision for life will begin to be transformed. You will begin to grasp the very purpose of life itself. Truly, the goal of life is to give ourselves to others, and to accept the gift that each person is. If we learn how to exchange gifts like this, then it would be Christmas every day!