Written by: 12/2/2018 12:00 AM
My sister Tania recently sent out a text in the family group message. Admittedly, it was a cheesy and corny video, but it had a good message that she wanted to share with the rest of us. In the linked video, a man woke up wrapped in gift wrap. His wife next to him was also enclosed in gift wrap, too. As he went through his morning routine, everything that he normally did was also wrapped in gift wrap: his shoes, his coffee mug, his children, the shower, his clothes, even to his car parked out in the driveway.
As he went through his day, he had this exuberant and joyous encounter with everything anew as he unwrapped each gift that was presented to him, even though that gift was as familiar as an old pair of slippers. (This was certainly the cheesy part!)
The end of the video was tagged simply: ‘This Christmas, may you be grateful for all the gifts around you!’ In a short video, only a minute and half or so, the message was powerful and profound: everything that we have in this life is a gift to us from a loving God and Father!
How quickly we can fall from that realization. How quickly we can lose that fervor and zeal that we have in the faith. How quickly we can begin to take for granted the things that are around us, even the people that are around us on a daily basis.
As we enter into Advent and begin our preparations for the Birth of our Savior, we are presented with a good opportunity to take that step back and recognize the constant flow of gifts that come to us from the Father. Because God never ceases to pour out his love into your hearts, minds, souls and lives!
The First Letter of John, chapter three, begins with this reality and recognition: “See what love the Father has bestowed on us that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope based on him makes himself pure, as he is pure.”
As we grow in this awareness of our giftedness from God, we grow also in the awareness that the greatest gift that God has bestowed on us is the Savior, His Son, who has come into the world to break the power of sin and evil so that we can be restored as sons and daughters of God. And so we are! Yes, sin is still in the world, and still affects our relationships with others, yet, as we constantly strive to see God’s gifts around us, the power of sin can be broken in my own life.
And that is perhaps the greatest gift that we can give back to God, our very selves, purified and made clean in the Blood of the Lamb! The one thing God does not have is our love, yet that is the one thing He desires. As we make our journey through this great season of Advent, may we all continue to grow in the awareness of the gifts that God has continually poured out upon each one of us, may we generously share those gifts with those around us; and by doing so, return the love of the Father back to the One who calls us into existence and holds us in His creating hand!
God Bless,
Fr. Kyle Schnippel
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