OH THE JOY!

• Ephesians 1:3-6 (MSG) ³ How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. ⁴  Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. ⁵  Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) ⁶  He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

I always want to give DeLaine the perfect gift.  I’ll be honest, I stress myself out because of it.  I spend a great deal of time listening to what she says she would like and then I start researching and figuring out what would have the most impact.  The moment I get the gift I am so impatient to give it to her.  I don’t want to wait, I want her to get it so that I can see the joy and wonder on her face that I did listen.  The greatest joy for me as a gift giver is watching people open the gift I gave them and seeing their joy and pleasure at it, and then having the satisfaction of seeing them use it.I wonder if that is how God must feel?  I wonder if He was impatient to send the gift of His Son to the world?  I wonder if He must light up when we respond to His gift and open it up and use it.  Our reading says that He took great pleasure in planning this.  Does your response to His gift bring Him joy? SAVORING

Look at Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2 and Hosea 11:1.  Do you get the impression that God was anxious to let us in on the surprise?How does it make you feel knowing that giving you the gift of Jesus gave God great pleasure?How can you thank Him for that gift?