I sit down to write and I just stare at the screen, or out the window.
I’ve been up for a couple of hours now and I really thought I could get some good stuff done this morning. Everyone is still sleeping. It’s so quiet. The perfect environment for writing. Yet … nothing is coming out.
I even have a topic to write about, so I’m not lacking for ideas. I just stare. There’s nothing. No motivation right now to get the words I know I need to write onto the page. It’s all just blank up there in my mind.
I think of a task I need to do later and I write it down. Seconds later, another thought: I should reorganize the bookshelves. I’m distracted. Where is this coming from?
So I pray. “God, give me focus and the words to write.”
Slowly, but ever so surely, the fog starts to lift. The words come, but they are sluggish and in a different form than I thought they would be. They are not my words. They are the words of my Father.
“I love you with an everlasting love.”
“My love will never leave you or forsake you.”
“I am with you always … even until the end of all things.”
The love of my Father brings life to my world. He brings words to my heart that I need to hear. Without words to write, I begin to feel like I’ve failed. When you feel like a failure it’s easy to forget that there is Someone who loves you with a love that cannot be described. Love is hard to define in general, but a love like this is a love that words cannot do justice.
So I don’t try. I just soak it all in. I am loved. I am loved by the same One who created the universe. The same hands that gently put the sun, moon, and stars in their places hold my heart. He gently whispers “I care about you more than you can ever know. You’re life matters to me more than the words you write.”
I write those words down so I will not forget them. I pass them on to you so that you will also know this love. A love that is everlasting. A love that will never leave. A love that cares more about you than anything you could ever do.
Soon we will celebrate Christmas.
It is not about packages, boxes, or brand new cars with giant red bows on them. Our society would like us to think it is, but that’s not true.
It is about a gift though. One given to us by a God who loves us with a love that will never end. One that offers us life eternal if we will accept the gift from the Giver.
It’s a love that promises to come again. To come and set up a new Heaven and new Earth. To take away all sorrow and pain. To remove the need for tears of sadness. Division, unrest, and hate will no longer exist. In their places we will experience joy, unity, peace, and love.
At Christmas, we remember the day that the personification of love came into our world. Love that came as a baby in a stable.
It was love that was laid in a manger that night.
We also look forward to the day that the same love that came at Christmas will come again and renew all things. With eager anticipation we wait for the day that Jesus returns and makes all things new.
This is the thrill of hope. A weary world will rejoice on that day.
Come soon, Jesus. We are watching and waiting with bated breath.