I received an amazing surprise this Christmas.
I don’t usually receive a Christmas bonus at
work. Each year, our boss gives us the
week off, with pay, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, so that has always
been our “bonus”. So when my boss dropped
a card on my desk the Friday before Christmas, I just tucked it in my lunchbox
to open when I got home, so I could get my last minute work projects finished
and everything in order at my desk to be gone for a week.
After work I emptied my lunchbox, saw the envelope from my
boss, and decided to open it up. Inside
the sweet Christmas card was a folded up check.
“How nice!” I thought, “And so unexpected!” I unfolded the check and could hardly believe
my eyes! It was not just a few token
dollars, but an absolutely extravagant bonus check, and I gasped out loud. I grabbed my phone to text my boss, but
decided a gift this extravagant deserved a phone call. So I dialed her cell phone and gushed out my
shock and surprise, and my thanks for her generosity.
Her response?
Laughter! She just laughed and
laughed as I gushed on. She was
obviously delighted to surprise me and bless me with her totally unexpected
extravagance.
Two days later I sat in church on Christmas Eve, hearing and
singing about another gift. I heard Daddy
God speaking to me about the gift he gave on Christmas, the gift of Jesus. It looked like an ordinary gift, a baby born
in some very humble circumstances, hay for a cradle, surrounded by animals in a
stable.
But then I heard Daddy laughing, just like my boss.
It looked like just an envelope, just a cute Christmas
card.
It looked like a wonderful birth, a happy man and woman,
some shepherds, angels singing, something about a promise fulfilled.
But I saw Father God in heaven planning his surprise, orchestrating
Jesus’ birth: the exhausting trip to Bethlehem; no rooms available at the inn;
a stable provided at the last minute; the first cries of the tiny newborn Jesus;
the weary smiles of Mary and Joseph; the announcement by the angels’, the
arrival of the wondering shepherds.
“This
is for you”, Daddy says. “Open it up.”
It’s just a card, or is it?
It’s just a sweet baby, right?
“You have no idea of what I am giving you today. This child, my only son will grow to be a
man, will teach you how to walk with God, and will suffer and die in
excruciating pain on a cross, to bring you into my family, and then rise from
the dead to be with you every day of your life, for the rest of eternity!”
Now I am crying, but not Daddy. No, he is laughing. I see his head thrown back and his mouth
opened wide in unhindered, joyous laughter, so obviously delighted to surprise
me and bless me with this totally unexpected extravagance.
“Praise God for
his astonishing gift, which is far too great for words!” 2 Cor. 9:15 TPT
