Tuesday, December 26, 2017

My Christmas Bonus

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

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