Saturday, December 21, 2013

Thanks for Now


As Christians, we always try to meditate on the coming of Christ a this time of the year. His birthday was actually in spring, we know, but with the reminders all around us, we like to take time and let the reality sink in.

So we think about the starry sky above Bethlehem, the quiet, unassuming stable, the shepherds, the angels, and we give thanks. But there's another part of this story that we forget about sometimes; the "today" part of Christmas is something to be thankful for, too.

It's all connected, really. Without his birth, there would have been no Bible to show us how to overcome. There would have been no crucifixion. There would have been no Easter morning.

 Years later, that night in Bethlehem is still affecting us; because the God who was born in the stable is the same One who lives in our hearts and blesses our lives with His presence.

I think that, too often, we overlook all the things that He does for us now. We pray when we're troubled. We pray when we need healing. We ask for His grace every day - but do we stop and thank Him? Do we ever ask God to show us how we could be used for His glory? What we could give?

Lately I've been journaling about everything that I'm thankful for. It's amazing what a beautiful life I have - even on the hardest days - because when I sit down at night and write out the little things (sometimes big things) that I appreciated or enjoyed through the day, the list never fails to be less than (at least) 10 items long. (Usually, I could go on, but I get tired of writing.)

I'm going to try and keep doing this every day for all of 2014.

So, I'm curious, what are three of the best things that happened to you in 2013?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love your idea of writing down what you are thankful for. Think I might do that this next year, too.