One of the things I like best about being a child of God is the little gifts He gives me.

Don’t get me wrong — I like the big, expensive gifts, too. I am thrilled and grateful to have survived two different kinds of cancer in the past two years. I am deeply appreciative of my wife and children and the excellent job God has provided me with.

But sometimes we take those big things for granted, or we get a little too accustomed to them — and so, God mixes it up a bit, just to remind us of how much He loves us.

James 1:7 says:

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

Not my actual gift.

For some reason, this verse has been on my mind a lot, lately — a few months ago I wrote a skit about it for AWANA, and I keep remembering this verse whenever I notice God doing something especially kind. Of course, the ability to recognize God’s hand and His gifts is itself a gift … but perhaps I’m getting a little circular.

Today was a bit of a long day. It is the first Sunday since I wrote my goals for 2014, and my week ends (from a reporting perspective) on Sundays. This means that all the goals that aren’t tied to a particular day, or those that must be done a certain number of times a week, come due on Sunday. Tomorrow I’ll need to send an email to the men in my accountability group, reporting on this week’s goal performance.

So I furiously worked for much of the day to catch up — praying, reading, writing, spending time with my family — my day was full! At the end of the evening, after a quick trip to the gym, I sank into my chair and prayed for a few people I had forgotten during the week. Opening my eyes, I glanced at the clock in the corner of my computer screen — Oooof! 11 pm already!

What about my fun? What about the hour of computer gaming I had promised myself, all day? How can I possibly keep up with these goals, especially if I put many of them off until Sunday? And then I got a tiny gift from God, just to let me know that He loves me.

I clicked on the I’m still listening button on Pandora, and my favorite Christmas song started to play (yes, I’m still listening to Christmas music in the third week of January). It was as though God reached down from Heaven, tapped my shoulder, and quietly told me:

“Tim, I’m proud of you and pleased with you for working so hard to complete these goal tasks for My glory. I know you like this song best, so I’m having Pandora play it for you to give you a moment of rest and joy before you got to bed.

And so this tiny gift fills my heart with gladness, and I wanted to share it with you.

Tim

Share or follow